Like a River
by HyperNin
Summary: Freshly minted jonin, Naruto Uzumaki, is well on his way to achieving his dream. He has his whole life set in front of him. A loving girlfriend, a teacher who wants the best for him, plenty of caring friends. So then, what's this about Genin? Wait, why is he getting assigned some snot-nosed students?
1. Prologue

There's no way this could happen.

It was impossible.

Naruto Uzumaki… was losing.

He was putting in his best effort, but his opponent had him beat in almost every category. Speed, endurance, technique. All of it outmatched the Jinchuriki.

"**Come on, Naruto. You can't lose here,"** he heard from inside his stomach. It was Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox that was sealed inside of him upon his birth.

'_I don't think I can do this, Kurama,'_ he thought back despairingly.

"**Are you really giving up? This isn't the Naruto I know."** The Kyubi scoffed.

'_You're right. I can't give up! I'm gonna see this through to the end, ya' know!'_ With that internal roar, Naruto put his all into this fierce battle.

"Time's up!"

…

"Huh?" Just when Naruto started his final push, the competition was called.

"The winner is… Hinata Hyuga!" The announcer called out, pointing right at the woman. "She is now The Ramen Queen, eating a total of forty-six bowls!" Cheers broke out in the audience, meanwhile, the Hyuga blushed.

She looked over to the second-place competitor, her boyfriend, Naruto. "Naruto, are you okay? You didn't get a stomach ache, did you? I noticed at the end there, you stopped eating for a bit."

"I-I'm fine, Hinata..." he said, distracted. The man appeared shell-shocked.

"Wow, you two were made for each other," Kiba said, trying to swipe the bronze medal away from Choji. The thick-boned man shoved his friend's head away and protected it.

"H-huh? Oh, I don't think-" Hinata began, but was cut off by the blond himself.

"Yeah! Hinata's perfect, ya' know!" He said, bouncing right back from his funk, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which to him it was, which caused the girl to grow even redder.

"O-oh Naruto..." She stood up and began to walk over him to reward him for being so sweet when the door to the expanding ramen shop opened.

"Jonin, Naruto Uzumaki, the Hokage needs to see you," The ANBU member called.

Naruto turned to the elite guard. "Huh? What for?"

"Rokudaime will explain," he said curtly, and then Body Flickered away.

Naruto sighed, and then turned to his friends. "Well, I guess Kakashi-sensei needs me for something. See you guys later!" He began to walk out of the shop but was stopped by Hinata.

"Naruto, wait!" The young man stopped and turned towards her. "I'll see you later," she said, as she placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Heh-heh, see you later, Hinata-_chan_." Emphasizing the suffix, he left and jumped his way through the village towards the Hokage tower.

* * *

"I'm here," Naruto called to his old teacher after entering the office. Then a second later, his voice took on a teasing tone. "_Hokage-sama_."

Kakashi Hatake sighed through his ever-present mask. "I told you to stop calling me that, Naruto."

A cheeky grin appeared on the blond's face. "I know." He then took a seat in front of Kakashi, noting how unusual it was that there was a chair there. _'It must be something long then...'_ he thought. After mentally preparing himself, he asked, "So, what do you need, Kakashi-Sensei?"

The man didn't respond, instead opting to turn his chair around and look out the window. _'He looks like an old man like that,'_ Naruto thought.

Thinking along similar lines, Kakashi then turned around and asked a question. "How old are you again, Naruto?"

"Huh?" That was all that left Naruto's mouth for a solid minute, to stunned to respond. After the minute, Naruto recovered, and the indignant, "you should know already," was all Kakashi got.

"Already twenty, huh?" Kakashi continued as if Naruto had actually answered. "I can't believe it's been almost ten years since I took you, Sakura, and Sasuke as my cute little Genin." His eye smile showed through, clearly attempting to get a rise from the young man in front of him. Of course, he'd been called said young man that for years, so it did little.

"Yeah, it has. Why are you bringing that up, though? What's the point of this meeting anyway?" Frustration began seeping into Naruto's tone. "If you really want to reminisce, do it next time Sasuke comes back."

"Ever the impatient one, aren't you?" Kakashi shook his head, then continued, "Alright, I'll cut to the chase for your sake." The Hokage rummaged through his desk, tossing paperwork everywhere until he finally found what he was looking for.

The Academy class roster.

"Uzumaki Naruto, as Hokage, I request that you become one of our new Jonin Instructors."

* * *

**Yes, a very short chapter, I know. But I just can't not end it on Kakashi's request, it's so perfect.**

**Now, the reason for this story is quite interesting. The long and the short of it though is that I've caught the Naruto bug again.**

**After not watching or paying attention to the series for a very long time, I got bored one day and ran out of My Hero fics to read, so I took a plunge and decided to read Naruto fics again. After that, well, you can blame the story, True Potential, for giving me some ideas.**

**Like this one, where post-Last Naruto becomes a Jonin Sensei.**

**Whether this continues or not is anyone guess, but I honestly feel good about this one. Besides, my interest in making fics coincides with my interest in the series as a whole, and since it's going to take a while to get through Naruto again now that I'm introducing it to my friends, I don't think the interest will go away anytime soon.**

**Now, this brings me to something important.**

**While I have all of Naruto's students mostly created at the moment, I don't have an entire ninja generation. The next chapter will introduce us to who Naruto's students are, and while I won't need new ninja for then, it would be nice to have them in my back pocket so to speak.**

**For that, I request you to send me some OCs, that could conceivably exist in the post-Last universe, and that you guys are okay with being somewhat minor characters. Please include appearance, name, clan (if applicable), goals, likes, dislikes, abilities, possible futures, and Chakra Affinity.**

**Now, what I would like is at least nine extra students, and three teachers (If you want someone else from Naruto's generation or any other canon character for that matter, then please say so in the reviews). I don't need them right away, but I will most likely need them around the time the Chunin exams occur. If you want, you could even send in characters from other villages for the exams, but that's quite a ways off.**

**And hey, if I like your characters enough, we could very well have an arc barely focusing on Naruto's kids. It's all up in the air at the moment.**

**A****nyway, with that said, see you next time, and happy creating!**


	2. Introducing

Silence reigned over the Hokage office.

In fact, it was so quiet, you could hear the citizens walking around in the streets of Konoha.

Just as Kakashi began thinking that his student was taking this news rather well, he began screaming.

"YOU WANT ME TO WHAT!?" If Kakashi didn't have hearing damage before, he certainly did now. He even sensed his ANBU in the other rooms sneakily checking in on him.

'_What a pain'_

"As I said, I want you to be a Jonin Instructor," he reiterated as if nothing had happened. If looks could kill… well, Kakashi would have died long ago, but still, Naruto was giving him quite the glare.

"But, why? Why would you trust _me_ in charge of children?" He seemed genuinely confused.

"You know, whining doesn't really befit a 'future Hokage.'" Kakashi eye-smiled at him.

"That doesn't answer my question, _Hokage-sama_," Naruto responded, once again emphasizing the other man's title.

Kakashi sighed and rubbed his temples. He then looked up at the blond seriously. This shut Naruto up. "Naruto, answer me honestly." Naruto gulped and then nodded. "Have you ever actually led someone?"

"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head and brought his hand to his chin. "I mean, I've taught Konohamaru the Rasengan."

Kakashi shook his head. "No, you showed him the steps, and left him to figure it out on his own."

Naruto rose to his feet indignantly. "Hey! I just did what Ero-Sennin did for me!"

"That's not a great way to teach, really."

Naruto set a glare upon the older man.

Kakashi rose his hands amicably. "I'm not saying Jiraiya-sama was a bad teacher Naruto, calm down." The man did so, still visually peeved. "What I am saying, however," Kakashi began. "Is that there is a reason Jiraiya-sama never became the Hokage." This caught Naruto's attention. He stayed silent, but his eyes urged him to continue. "Many of Sandaime's advisors advocated for Jiraiya-sama to become the Hokage, and Sandaime himself considered it. However, he never went through with it, instead lining up Tsunade-sama for the hat." Kakashi rested his head on his hands. "Have you ever thought about why, Naruto?"

The blond thought for a minute. "Wasn't it because Ero-Sennin was Konoha's spymaster? Wouldn't he be harder to replace?"

Kakashi shook his head. "While that his partly true, that wasn't the main reason. After all, such a scenario could easily be remedied with a little instruction from Jiraiya-sama himself." Kakashi had a faraway look in his eyes. "No, the main reason was that he had no faith that he could be a leader." His gaze settled back on Naruto. "You're the only student of his that didn't die or turn against him." Naruto nodded solemnly. "He considered himself a failure, and Sandaime realized he didn't have the confidence enough as a leader to be the Hokage."

There was a pregnant pause. Naruto looked downwards, whilst Kakashi looked up. After almost five minutes, Kakashi asked, "Can you trust yourself to lead a squad, Naruto?"

Naruto didn't lookup.

"I didn't think so. You asked, 'why would you trust me in charge of children.' That wasn't a question of if I trusted you. That was you trying to convince me not to trust you." Naruto winced, and Kakashi looked forwards again, gaze hardened. "Naruto, look at me." Naruto raised his head, and did as he was told, eyes full of guilt. "I know you're not as confident as you like to make yourself out to be, but if you're too scared to take on a team of Genin, then how can you trust yourself to take on the village?"

There was another pause. This one, somehow more intense than the last one.

Kakashi just needed one final push. "Every Hokage in history has taught before. Shodaime and Nidaime taught Sandaime. Sandaime taught the Sannin. Minato-sensei taught my team. Tsunade-sama taught Shizune-san, and I taught your team." With a smile, a genuine one, Kakashi said, "I know you like breaking the mold, but even still. There's no Hokage who hasn't taught before."

After another pause, Naruto looked up at Kakashi, and said, "wow Kakashi-sensei. I didn't know you knew Talk-no-Jutsu too." Naruto beamed, whilst Kakashi just sighed. "Okay then, sensei. You convinced me."

Naruto stood from his chair and pumped his fist. "I'll become the best damn teacher ever, ya' know!"

* * *

"So, that's what's gotten you in such a fuss, huh," Iruka said while walking through the streets with Naruto and Konohamaru. Naruto ran into the pair leaving Ichiraku's once he left the Hokage building, after looking through the graduating class roster.

"Hey, are you sure it'll be okay?" Konohamaru asked worriedly. "I mean, Big Bro Naruto isn't really the best teacher. When he was explaining the Rasengan to me, and said, 'it needs to go BAM,' and then left." Iruka began laughing while Naruto crossed his arms.

"Hey! I've gotten better, ya' know." Konohamaru squinted suspiciously. "I have!" Naruto then sighed when Konohamaru wouldn't drop the suspicion. He'd show him. Then, Iruka started laughing! "Not you too, Iruka-Sensei..." Naruto pouted.

"No, it's not that." Iruka chuckled mirthfully. "After all, you have been teaching at the Academy from time to time." This caught both Konohamaru and Naruto's attention. What would get their teacher in such a mood? "I was just thinking." A distant look grew in the Tokubetsu Jonin's eye. "Both of you have really grown up."

A somber moment passed between the three, as Iruka's words settled in the air.

It was quickly shattered, however, by an annoyed Naruto. "Oh come on! I already got enough of that from Kakashi-Sensei, I don't need you starting too!" Naruto crossed his arms, pouting.

Iruka just chuckled again. "Hey, we can't help it, ya' know," he said, copying Naruto's and Konohamaru's verbal ticks. Naruto eloquently stuck his tongue out. "It's a sobering feeling when the children you teach grow to be teachers themselves." Iruka pointed at himself pitifully. "It also works wonders for making me feel old..."

Konohamaru guffawed. "Hey, you want us to call you Old Man Iruka-Sensei now, or something?"

Iruka nearly tripped. "Please, don't!"

Konohamaru was about to continue, but was cut off by a loud call of, "Konohamaru-kun!" The trio turned to see a waving Hanabi Hyuga down the street, and she began moving towards them.

A slight blush appeared on Konohamaru's cheeks as he waved back and yelled, "Hanabi-chan!"

Naruto and Iruka turned to each other wearily, each with a raised eyebrow. Naruto then shrugged and turned to the young lady. "Hey there, Hanabi. What's up?"

She stopped her trek and turned her head to her sister's boyfriend. "Oh, nothing really. Just..." a glance over to Konohamaru. "Just passing through, and figured I'd come and say hi."

Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by Konohamaru practically yelling, "Hey, did you hear? Big Bro Naruto's gonna be teaching some Genin."

Amusement danced in Hanabi's eyes, as she said, "really? And we're sure those kids will turn out all right?"

This got a big laugh from Iruka and Konohamaru, while Naruto was somewhere between determination, betrayal, and frustration.

Still chortling, Iruka laid a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I-it seems no one believes in you, Naruto," he pointed out with a gentle smile.

Naruto pouted.

"So," Iruka began again. "What'll you do about it?"

Naruto's brows furrowed, and his eyes narrowed. _'__What is Iruka-sensei doing?'_ Obviously, he was going to prove everyone wrong. He's done it plenty of times before. Iruka-sensei should have known this about him. So, what was with this prompting? "Well, I'll prove them wrong, obviously."

Iruka's smile grew, and he pat his old student on the back. "I'm looking forward to it."

Naruto was still confused but decided to put it out of his mind. Right now, he had to focus on how he was going to lead his team.

'_I guess I'll just do what Kakashi-sensei did. Our team turned out fine in the end.'_

* * *

Man, was this nostalgic.

Here he was, Naruto Uzumaki, sitting on the roof of the Ninja Academy, with three freshly graduated students looking at him expectantly. He never expected that this would happen to him, but, as Naruto had quickly found out during his life, fate never really agreed with him.

And that thought was one that brought a pang of sadness as he thought of a young, fate spouting Hyuga who sacrificed himself for the blond, but Naruto quickly shook that off.

It wouldn't do to give the little kiddies his baggage, after all. "Okay," he began. "Let's start with names, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and goals for the future." He said it as if reading off a script. Well, he basically was because he just decided to recite what Kakashi-sensei said to him on his first day.

The girl in the middle gave him a funny look. "How about you show us how it's done." The other two present nodded in agreement.

Naruto hid his growing grin as best he could, which to any Chunin would be obvious, but to freshly-minted-not-exactly-yet Genin, they couldn't tell. This was his chance. He had been waiting for this. "Hm, alright then. My name is Naruto Uzumaki." The Not-Genin nodded. This was the fun part. "I don't have to tell you about my likes or dislikes." The Not-Genin's faces fell. The white-haired girl in the middle especially. "My hobbies are boring." Not to him, but he didn't say that. "And everyone should know my goal by now," he concluded, looking pleasantly at his not-yet-his Not-Genin.

Oh, how wonderful this felt. No wonder Kakashi-sensei did it.

The graduates all looked between each other for a moment, clearly trying to hide their disbelief, but not doing it that well.

"Alright, so who wants to go next?" Naruto did his best to put on his innocent voice, which came rather naturally to him once he tried.

The boy on his left hesitantly rose his hand. "U-um, I'll go." Blushing slightly, the boy stood up. He wore a simple green tunic, with a Konoha logo embroidered on the front, matching his similarly colored eyes. Over the top of the tunic was a simple leather coat, that went down to the boy's knees, the brown color extenuating his slightly tanned skin. His pants were light and brown, and he wore sandals that went up to his mid-shin. Around his waist was a brown belt, that had a multitude of packs and small bags. Rounding off the look was his dark green headband, that we wore as a bandana over his head that tamed his wild brown hair. That, along with his stocky build, and impressive height for his age crafted the image of a strong young man.

However, if Naruto knew his stereotypes right, that would usually mean...

"M-my name is Mamoru. Mamoru Tomi." He glanced around slightly. "I like..." He hesitated, before putting on a voice. "Sweets," he said unconvincingly.

Yup. A gentle giant.

"I don't like greedy people who have no manners. I also don't like sand." He looked downwards with a small smile. "M-my hobby is making trinkets and charms..." He then looked up, and right into Naruto's eyes with determination. "My goal is to support my family."

Naruto nodded, then pointed at the girl with white hair in a ponytail draped over her shoulder sitting in the middle. "Alright, you next." Mamoru sat down, and the girl then stood up, following his example.

She wore a gray haori with shorter than average sleeves, only going down to her elbows. The haori was tied around her waist, and it had a dark blue dragon design running across the bottom of it. Underneath the haori was a blue tank top, and underneath that was a short-sleeved fishnet shirt. She also wore a grey skirt, with a pair of tight black shorts underneath. He sandals had small straps, leaving them mostly open, and her blue headband was worn tightly around her neck, like a choker.

Naruto noted the toned muscles and thin frame she had. She struck him as the athletic type.

With a wicked smile, she began, "Hey there! Name's Shira. Shira Ai." Her smile grew into a toothy version of itself as she continued. "I like jewelry," she sent a glance over to the necklace the third girl in their group was wearing. "And, I also like heroes!" At this, she shifted her gaze to Naruto. "I don't like people who can't make decisions, and I _hate_ bugs." She then stopped and pondered for a moment. "I guess my hobby would be debating..." she said with a small frown. "My goal then would be to find where Shinobi belong in this peaceful world." With that, she sat down.

A small moment of silence passed over the group, as Shira grew a bit embarrassed. After a bit longer, Naruto nodded, and said, "that's a great goal." Shira visibly relaxed when he did so. He figured her personality was like his own. Loud and abrasive.

Finally, he motioned to the other girl on his right, and the last member of this team of three. "Okay then, you're up."

The final girl nodded and stood up. This one wore a dark red, loose, sleeveless blouse, with a black tank top underneath. On the tank top was an Uzumaki swirl around the stomach area, and the blouse had brown bird design on the back of it. She also wore a pair of black ninja shorts that went down to right above the knees, and red leggings that went up past her shorts. Her closed-off black sandals meant that she was fairly well cover on the lower half. At the end of her shorts on her right leg was some ninja wrap that prevented her shorts from flaring outwards. On the left was her dark red headband, which served the same purpose. She had brown hair that had two separating ponytails, and went down to her shoulder blades, and bangs that framed her face. The final noteworthy thing on her person was an emerald necklace she wore, shaped like a feather.

'_She looks… floaty? Soft? Something like that,'_ Naruto thought.

A lackadaisical smile was natural on her face as she began. "My name's Tori Ushinawa." She gave a cute mini bow. "I like, um, trees. I also like the wind." She put a hand to her chin. "I can't really think of anything I don't like..." Her eyes popped open all of a sudden. "Oh! I'm not a fan of eggs." If she was embarrassed by the random dislike, she didn't show it. "My hobbies are gardening, and taking care of stray animals." Her face somehow grew softer looking after that, but then all of a sudden, the gentle look disappeared, and was replaced by a tense expression, then that was smothered by a forced gentle expression. Naruto raised his eyebrow, but it didn't appear the other two noticed. "My goal..." Tori sent a quick glance at Shira and then continued. "My goal is to become the strongest I can be."

'_Guess her personality matches her appearance… Man, I'm terrible at this stuff. Hinata's so much better, ya' know.'_ Naruto lamented in his mind. _'Though, there is one thing I know.'_ He inspected her closer and noticed that look in her eyes. That look that said everything wasn't okay, and that she was hiding her pain.

Tori didn't wait any further, and sat down awkwardly, still forcing a soft smile. The other two nodded, and then all three turned to their new Sensei. Naruto continued to think. _'It looks like they all aren't ready to open up fully.'_ He quickly looked the three over again. Mamoru's shyness, Shira's hobbies, and Tori's goal. _'It's not like that's unexpected though. After all, those three were never really close during the Academy, if the records are right.'_ In fact, Shira had a tendency of being rather cold to Tori, as Tori was this year's dead last, and she was student of the year.

Well, that's what the report said, anyway.

He thought back to each of there reactions to each other's profiles. Mamoru acted like he didn't want to know, but was still very curious. Shira was the most open, nodding along enthusiastically to her compatriots' words. Tori kept that lackadaisical smile on her the whole time. _'__Well, a__t least they seem to get along better than my team did...'_ Naruto lamented to himself. He could never forget the pure jealousy that ensnared him whenever it came to Sasuke back then. Not to mention his obsession with Sakura, or his lack of faith in Kakashi, not to mention the other problems in his team's interpersonal relationships.

'_Was my team even ever meant to succeed?'_ He was beginning to think that following Kakashi's example was a bad idea.

Moving on, though. The Not-Genin trio was growing bored and was waiting for Naruto to say something. _'Ah well. I'll at least make sure this one succeeds.'_ Then, a dark chuckle echoed through his mind. _'That is if they even become a team.'_

* * *

Shira Ai couldn't believe this.

Today was just a roller coaster of emotions.

She started off excited. _'My first day as a Genin!'_ Then, she was disappointed. _'I'm not on a team with any of my friends? Instead, I get the loner and the dead last!'_ Then, she was jubilant. _'My teacher is Naruto-san!? Woohoo!'_ Then, she was disappointed again. _'Naruto-san refuses to open up to us...'_

Right now, however. She was hopefully optimistic. _'Dead last and the loner don't seem that bad. Maybe this will work out.'_

"Alright. Now that introductions are out of the way, let's clear one thing up real quick." Shira's idol, Naruto, began.

"You three aren't Genin yet," he said ruthlessly.

…

"WHAT!?" The emotions Shira was feeling now were somewhere between disbelief, sadness, and betrayal. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?" The loner's eyes widened considerably, and dead last's dopey smile dropped from her face.

Naruto had the gall to give an exaggerated smile that reminded her of the Hokage's. "Exactly what I said. You three have one final exam for you to take before you can be considered full Genin."

As Shira was stunned by the revelation, Mamoru decided to ask, "b- but aren't we already Genin? We passed th-the Academy exam." He then shied away from his teacher when his attention switched targets.

At this, Naruto chuckled. Shira could tell he was getting some sort of sick pleasure from this. Her pristine image of him was already falling apart! "Oh come on, what really did the Academy teach you? Substitution? Clones? I know Kakashi-sensei wanted to include Tree Walking in the curriculum." Tori raised her hand, and Naruto pointed at her enthusiastically.

"Tree Walking wasn't in our studies! That'll be included next year," she called out with similar enthusiasm to her superior.

Naruto nodded. "Right, well." He coughed as if he didn't expect an actual answer. "Did you honestly expect to become Ninja with skills like those?" When all three nodded, Naruto facepalmed. Mumbling to himself, he then continued, "well, they're good baselines, but aside from Substitution, they won't be very useful later on, when you get to be better Ninja."

It was with that sentence that Shira realized. Her (hopefully) new teacher wasn't just telling her what to do. This wasn't anything like the Academy. Naruto was looking toward the future. He wasn't talking in, 'if,'s or 'maybe's. His words were firm. Confident.

It was almost like he was telling her, 'you _will_ become an amazing Shinobi.'

Whether the loner or dead last realized it, they sat a little straighter, along with Shira herself, of course. As the top student of her class, of course, Shira realized Naruto's words of inspiration. _'The loner probably didn't, and dead last most certainly didn't. But they instead felt it. Such was the caliber of belief held in those words,'_ Shira thought to herself.

"See, after you pass the Academy Exam, your Jonin is to give you a special test to see whether you are truly worthy of becoming real shinobi," Naruto recited. "And I'll warn you..." He put on a scary face, and said, "no one has passed _my_ test." He raised an eyebrow. "So... what do you say? Are you quitters, or do you think you have what it takes to become my students?"

The three then decided to stand up, and in unison, they said, "We accept your challenge!"

A huge grin burst out on Naruto's face.

* * *

Naruto wasn't sure what got the not-Genin so fired up, but he didn't care either.

This was the kind of gumption he hoped his students-to-be would have. Reading their reports, he worried that only Shira would have the guts to do this kind of thing, but he was pleasantly surprised.

Of course, he had to keep up appearances. _'Okay, how would Kakashi-sensei have reacted in this situation?'_ Oh right. He gave them his best Kakashi-like smile and then said, "good to hear. Let's meet at Training Ground 7, eight a.m. sharp." He got up and dusted off his pants. The pre-Genin began picking themselves up as well when they were suddenly stopped.

"Oh, by the way," Naruto began. "You probably shouldn't eat breakfast." His Chesire grin came back full force. "Unless you want to puke, that is." With that, he Body Flickered away, leaving three gaping Genin in his wake.

* * *

**Special shout-out to ChillyIce for being the first one to send in an OC, and Kunnaki for being the first one to send in a Teacher OC!**

**Now, time for some Reviews. Quick disclaimer, I won't respond to all reviews. Just the ones I can t****hink of a**** respons****e**** to.**

**MentalForge: Oh, that is an interesting idea. I'll admit, I've never thought of that. I could probably think up a character like that.**

**Though, remember, you're always free to make one of your own and PM it to me if you so choose. If you want to make the character, just let me know. Otherwise, I'll probably poach that idea from you.**

**WarrenDSherman****: Indeed, looking back, I realize I should have at least finished the meeting between Naruto and Kakashi in chapter 1…**

**Hindsight's 20/20 as they say.**

**Also, I tend to struggle with tone in general, but it gets easier the more chapters I write, so that will maybe sort it out in the future.**

**Hopefully...**

* * *

**Chapter 2, completed! Was it scatterbrained? Probably.**

**I ended up writing this thing over the course of a c****ouple of weeks****.**

**Now, that doesn't sound bad, but when you have to stop halfway through because you've been dragged into a play production because you've gained a reputation as The Lights Guy, then you kind of lose the plot.**

_**Oh, woe is me, and other whiny wailings.**_

**In other news, we officially have all the teachers we need... Wow, that was quick. I also only need two more for students...**

**I didn't expect to get this many candidates so soon...**

**Anyway, I'll work on the next chapter rather soon, maybe before this chapter is up even. Don't expect too many quick uploads though. My schedule is pretty unpredictable at the moment.**

**Unpredictable is kind of the name of the game when you drop out of school…**

**Finally, you may notice that I'm using a lot of the translated stuff. Now, I use Dattebayo or Raiton/Futon/etc whenever referring to this stuff usually. However, I also say stuff like Water Dragon Jutsu or Substitution Jutsu. I'd rather have consistency, so for that reason, I'll be sticking with the translations.**

**In my mind, when Iruka took Kono and Naru's verbal ticks, he said kore-ttebayo.**

**Anyway, see you next chapter!**


	3. Testing

Mamoru Tomi wasn't tired.

He wasn't exactly starving either, though he _was_ hungry.

No, instead, Mamoru was feeling nervous.

Extremely. Nervous.

It didn't help anything that his teacher was two hours late, of course.

He could hear Shira yelling about that fact from across the training field. That brought him to the next thing that made him nervous.

His team.

Now, don't get him wrong, he didn't dislike them. They just… didn't seem like they'd be great shinobi.

Shira was loud, confident, and bright. Far from the standard ninja.

Tori was… Well, Tori was for lack of a better term. Lazy. She didn't seem to put much stock into anything, and always had that one smile on her face. That smile that made it seem like she didn't care about anything.

Of course, Mamoru would never tell them this. He didn't want them to hate him. But, when one of his teammates was screaming her head off over their teacher, and the other was somehow napping through it all, it didn't fill him with confidence.

Finally, that brought him to the last factor to his nervousness.

Naruto Uzumaki.

There wasn't a single person in the Elemental Nations who hasn't heard of Naruto Uzumaki.

He was a hero.

And that was the problem.

Mamoru had run across these 'heroes' before. They claim to want to help, and they 'try their best,' but when they fail, they don't really care. They ask for payment, even if their services only hurt more than help, and then they screw off.

Mamoru wasn't looking forward to working with another self-proclaimed hero.

Especially not one who wasn't even serious enough to arrive on time.

He sighed and shook his head. He then turned to look back at Shira, who had stopped yelling at some point.

He proceeded to release a girlish yelp, and jump when he noticed she was right in front of him.

"Seriously, what's Naruto-sensei doing?" She scoffed and looked at him expectantly. He raised an eyebrow. She scoffed again, and said, "well? What do you think he's doing, loner?"

'_L-loner?'_ Putting that out of his mind, for now, he crossed his arms and thought about it. "M-maybe he's… uh… with his g-girlfriend?"

Shira gasped all of a sudden, and then put her hands on Mamoru's shoulders. He shook out of her grasp, and she glared at him, but said anyway, "you think she's pregnant!?"

…

Mamoru had no response. He just gaped at her.

Then, Shira shook her head. "Yeah, you're right. The Hyuga clan would kill him if that happened before they got married." Her eyes went wide. "You think he's dead!?"

"Naruto-sensei can't die," a voice spoke.

This time, both Shira and Mamoru yelped and jumped. They then quickly turned to the voice, and say Tori with an easy smile on her face.

"Hey! You can't just sneak up on us like that!" Shira screamed.

Tori tilted her head. "I wasn't sneaking, though..."

"Doesn't matter! Tell us before you wake up!"

Tori tilted her head further. "How?"

Shira blushed a little, before yelling louder, "JUST DO IT!"

At this point, Tori's head was basically sideways. Mamoru was just doing his best to shrink away from the conversation.

It was this scene that Naruto walked in on.

* * *

Now, Naruto had _planned_ on arriving late.

Just… not this late.

After all, after yesterday, he planned on being less like Kakashi when dealing with Not-Genin.

But then Ayame came by and dragged him to Ichiraku to try out a new flavor of ramen, and then Choji challenged him to another eating contest, and then the two got onto talking about Choji's old Genin team, and how to deal with them, and then Ino came by and joined the conversation…

It got out of hand fast.

When Naruto realized the time, he sped right on over and began working on his… important test supplies.

Setting it up took longer than expected, so he ended up only being able to set up one thing. He thought about setting up more anyway, but children don't really have patience.

It took a while, but he eventually arrived at the field. The scene he arrived at, though, was an interesting one.

Shira was screaming, Tori was confused, and Mamoru looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but here.

Still, that was better than what his team would have been like, so he took it as a plus.

…

He really needed to stop comparing them to his team.

Regardless, he cleared his throat, and that stopped any further yelling.

Well, it stopped it for a second.

Shira made her discontent clear, as she pointed at him, and yelled, "You're late!"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, and with a guilty grin, he said, "I uh… ran into a black cat and had to go around the long way?"

The stink-eye Shira gave him told him all he needed to know. Even Mamoru and Tori were giving him flat stares.

'_Okay…__ Guess they're a little cranky...'_ It was probably best to not keep them waiting any longer, so without further ado, he produced a clock from his pocket, and laid it on the ground.

"Alright, this is how the test will go, ya' know." He pointed down at the clock on the ground. The three kids stopped glaring and nodded. "This clock will go off in two hours." He reached into his pocket and pulled out two bells. "You have to get these two bells from me by then." He hung the bells on his unzipped flak jacket he was wearing over his normal jacket. "Any questions?"

Tori raised her hand, and Naruto pointed at her. "Why are there bells? What's the point of them?" She tilted her head in confusion again.

"Excellent question, ya' know!" Naruto pointed down at his hip where the bells were, and began, "see, to pass this exam, you need to be holding one of these bells at the two-hour mark." The trio nodded, but then a look appeared on Mamoru's face. It seems he's realized the problem.

"B-but there's o-only two..." He hung his head as a slight blush appeared from the attention he got from the other two.

"Well, would you look at that." He grabbed the bells and inspected them like he was just realizing this. A nonchalant smile found it's way on his face. "Well, I guess only two of you get to pass, then." Drinking in their horrified faces, Naruto let his words hang in the air.

This was almost as good as all the pranks he used to pull. "Any other questions?" He finally asked.

When the trio shook their heads, a grin grew onto his face, and he called out, "Alrighty then… Go!"

Immediately, Mamoru jumped off into the forest. After a slight hesitation, Tori followed.

Shira, however, stood her ground.

Naruto's grin widened minutely. "Oh? Not gonna run off into the woods with your friends?"

"Pfft, as if," she said. "I don't need them. I can get those bells on my own." With that said, she charged at her soon to be sensei. However, before she got a chance to do anything, she was all of a sudden face down on the ground.

Naruto jumped into the air and watched as Shira got to her feet and scrambled to find where he went. He almost burst out laughing seeing her round face looking so confused.

This next part was going to be amazing.

"Konoha Secret Finger Jutsu!" Shira swerved on her feet and saw Naruto making a hand sign. She now had an immense feeling of dread take over her body. Of course, she had read all she could about her hero's jutsus. He was said to have created a technique that Godaime declared a Forbidden Jutsu. One so powerful, not even the legendary Yondaime could have created it!

And he was using such a jutsu in this test!?

Well, Shira wasn't dumb. She quickly realized he wasn't going to hold back, and turned to run.

However, this is exactly what Naruto wanted. His eyes glinted as he said, "One Thousand Years of Death!" He then charged at the poor, unsuspecting girl.

Shira turned her head and twisted her upper body to look at what her superior was doing, and what she saw was a fast-approaching blond, his hand still in the tiger seal. Then, she saw him lower his hands so that his pointer and middle fingers were forward.

Then she felt a sharp pain in her butt.

"YAAAAAAAAAHHHHH" She then went flying through the air.

"Plaph!" She then landed face-first on the ground.

Again…

The whole training field was silent.

Somewhere in the forest, Tori was covering her mouth with a blush covering his face, while Mamoru could only stare dumbfounded.

Shira hopped onto her knees, still holding her behind trying to nurse the _excruciating_ pain. A massive blush covered her face as she turned to glare at her disgraceful teacher. "Y-y-you PERVERT! HOW _DARE_ YOU!?"

Said teacher was doubled over, rolling on the ground, clutching his stomach in laughter.

After a solid minute of nonstop laughing from one, and grumbling from the other, Naruto finally recovered, got back onto his feet, and said, "Hey! I used that to take down a Tailed Beast before, ya' know!"

Shira continued to glare at him until the pain finally receded enough to allow her to get up. When she did, she made the ram seal. "That's it! This is what you get! Lighting Style: Thunderclap Arrow!" She gathered lightning nature Chakra in her hand and then flung it at her teacher.

Naruto quickly side-stepped the bolt, which exploded a tree behind him. He then dashed forward, and roundhouse kicked her into the treeline. "It's not a good idea to attack out of anger," he said simply.

* * *

Tori Ushinawa was stunned.

After all, it's not every day a tree _explodes_ in front of you. And then the person who caused said explosion gets punted through the forest.

Not to mention when said person is leagues above yourself.

It wasn't a great vote of confidence, either.

She looked out into the field to see Naruto Uzumaki, who had just used that… unique technique, merrily whistling a small tune, and pacing around.

Oh great.

Now the panic was setting in.

As much as she tried to hide it, Tori was a very anxious person.

She was the dead last of her class, even behind Taro Ito despite it only being just barely so. She had no family, and thus, no one to rely on. She had only stories to accompany her most of her life, no friends to speak of. And to top it off, now she was facing a battle that not even top of her class, Shira Ai, could handle.

However, before her perpetually happy facade had a chance to drop, her companion spoke up. "Come on, let's go find her. Maybe we can make something of this situation," Mamoru said. Tori nodded silently and rapidly, and then followed him to where Shira had landed.

It was a tense, silent walk.

Mamoru wasn't one for small talk, and Tori was dealing with her thoughts.

After a while, she could no longer take it, and asked, "So, what'll we do when we find her...?"

Mamoru stopped and looked back at her. "I'm… not sure… At the very least, we'll have to form a united front to stand a chance."

Tori silently noted the lack of stutter in his voice and left it at that. They picked back up their walk, and she was left with just her thoughts again.

How could they possibly steal those bells from Naruto-sensei? What would happen when they did get them? Which of them would have to be sent back?

If she had to fight the other two for a chance, she knew she would lose.

Maybe…

If she was alone, she might have a chance to take one of the bells before Naruto-sensei knew she was there.

'_Yeah, that might just work,'_ she thought. As silently as she could, she detached from Mamoru, who was none the wiser of what just occurred, and she crept back to the forest line to see what her soon-to-be guaranteed-to-be always-was-going-to-be teacher was doing.

He seemed to be lying down, napping.

Seeing this as her chance, Tori ripped away from the forest and dove at the man.

Only for said man to poof into smoke.

She then landed with a grunt on some sort of wire.

Then, a large wooden cage landed over top of her, and hundreds of paint-filled balloons rained down at her.

She had no chance to dodge, as she was in a cage.

After clearing enough colors to give an epileptic a seizure from her eyes, she saw Naruto standing in front of her.

"You know..." he began, shaking off his laughter. "If something looks really easy, it's safe to assume it's a trap." As he said this, Naruto had a faraway look in his eyes. Tori had no way of knowing he was thinking of when he fell for a similar trap.

She just nodded dumbly as Naruto took a seat on top of her cage.

She doubted she was getting out of here anytime soon.

* * *

"Shira..."

She groaned. Whoever was calling her could wait. She just wanted to sleep for now.

"Hey, Shira..."

She groaned again, and turned away from the offending voice, trying to block the light that she was now aware of.

"Shira, get up!"

Now she was being shaken. She sat up to give whoever decided to interrupt her nap a piece of her mind, but she froze when she saw Mamoru's worried face. "L-loner?"

"Come on, you've been out for a while. We need to finish this test."

"W-wha..." What was going on? She thought back to what happened before she… fell asleep? _'Hm… we started the test… I attacked sensei on my own… he used… AH! That's right! I still gotta pay him back for that!'_

"Okay, now-"

"What happened to your stutter?"

"H-huh?" Mamoru blushed and looked down at his own body like it was a foreign object. "I-I uh… Y-y-you..."

"Eh, whatever. Doesn't matter." Shira just brushed him off and looked all business again. "So, what were you gonna say?"

"Eh, I… uh… right..." He looked away and tried to shrink down, but still continued. "A-anyway… th-the three of us should try and come up with a plan."

Shira just looked at him strangely. "Three of us? What are you talking about?"

"H-huh?" He mirrored her look. "Wh-what do you mean? Y-you, me, and T-Tori."

"You want us to go find dead last?"

"Huh? G-go find…?" Mamoru turned around in search of something, but he got confused when he didn't find anything. "H-hey! T-Tori! Where'd y-you go?"

"So, dead last was with you, huh?" Mamoru nodded. "Well, if she got scared and ran off, that's fine. That just means the two of us can get those bells and pass!"

"W-what? No, all three of us need to w-work together, or else-"

"Dead last will just hold us back." She waved him off and then began walking back to the field. Mamoru sped to keep up. "Okay, so here's what I'm thinking," Shira began. "I can distract him from one side, while you sneak up behind him." She nodded confidently.

"B-but… okay then..." Mamoru nodded and stayed silent.

Satisfied, Shira continued walking through the branches and shrubbery in order to make it back to her hero.

Well… after that stunt he pulled, Shira was having a hard time thinking highly of him...

But that was neither here nor there.

What instead she had to focus on was how she was going to pin down their sensei. The only thing she really had against him was her Thunderclap Arrow, and he already showed he had no problems avoiding that.

She doubted that any of the Academy Jutsus would be at all useful here either…

And just like that, she was out of options.

'_If only mom and dad let me learn some better Ninjutsu, I wouldn't be in this situation!'_ She then shook her head. Complaining won't do anything, she had to figure something out here.

She and Mamoru arrived at the edge of the clearing to see Naruto sitting on top of a very bright cage with someone inside.

Shira scoffed. "Of course dead last would get captured." She then shrugged. "Oh well, what's done is done." She turned back to her partner and then pointed to the other side of the assault on the eyes. "Okay, you go around that way, I'll get his attention."

He nodded and then left.

Shira took a second to calm herself. _'You won't let it happen again. You won't!'_ She then looked at the cage, where Tori was being held. _'I _do_ feel bad for her, but she'd just slow us down. Plus, it's probably best that the dead last gets sent back.'_ With that concluded, she dashed forward and yelled at the top of her lungs, "TIME FOR PAYBACK!" With that shout, she charged up another Lightning Style: Thunderclap Arrow, and launched it at Naruto.

He just hopped off the top of the cage and faced towards her. "Do you really want to do this again? I'll give you a chance to back off." When Shira stood her ground, Naruto grinned. "Alrighty then. Don't say I didn't warn you." With that, he dashed at Shira at speeds unparalleled.

Well, in reality, it was only a fraction of his top speed, but he was fast when compared to a Genin.

Just before Naruto was able to reach her, she substituted with a log and then jumped from the forest on to the top of the cage.

Naruto watched her stand on top of it, seemingly not doing anything.

When Shira jumped away from the cage however, he just shook his head. He sidestepped a straight punch, grabbed her arm, and threw her through the air.

Shira smirked though, as she saw Mamoru treading behind Naruto, about to grab the bells.

Unfortunately for them, Naruto spun on his heel, and out of Mamoru's range. Mamoru then got a sweep to his legs, and he fell.

And as Shira landed from Naruto's throw, the alarm rang out.

* * *

The three students were sitting in front of Naruto with sullen expressions on their faces.

Shira was nursing a couple of bruises, mostly to her face and arms. Tori was still absolutely covered in dry paint. Mamoru looked fine, aside from some minor scratches.

None of these did anything but worsen their moods.

Naruto sighed to himself. On the one hand, Shira and Mamoru's final plan showed some promise. They were willing to work together, and, while not perfect, their teamwork was fairly decent. The problem there, however, was that it was just the two of them.

Tori rushed out on her own. For some reason, Tori just split from Mamoru, and the boy hadn't the sense of mind to notice.

It wasn't all Tori though. During the last assault, he had given Shira a chance to free her, but she didn't.

Along with that, Mamoru appeared to have an idea of what this test was about, but when he was challenged, he just backed down based on what his clone saw.

This was… disappointing.

"Okay, let's talk about this." The three looked up at him. "You guys failed." Their heads dropped back down. "This test was supposed to be about building teamwork. In that, you failed miserably."

It was unfortunate, but Naruto doubted he could pass this team with any confidence. He was about to leave it at that, tell Kakashi-sensei about the results, and then try again next year, but something stopped him.

"Wait, sensei!" The voice that reached out to him was one he didn't expect. It was Tori.

Naruto stopped and turned to the girl, who was staring down at the ground. Both Shira and Mamoru were staring wide-eyed at her.

"Sensei..." she began. She started twiddling her fingers, but when she looked up at him, her eyes were the same as his when he was just a boy. There was sadness, and pain, but then, there was a large amount of sincerity along with it. Mix it with determination and apprehension, and, it was almost like looking at a mini, female Naruto. "Please, let Shira and Mamoru pass."

It was so quiet, one could hear a pin drop.

Surprisingly, it was Mamoru who broke the silence. "W-what? We can't pass w-without you, Tori..."

"No!" This was the first time any of them saw Tori without her lazy smile. "It's my fault that we all failed. We could've passed if I didn't get caught. So please..." She leaned forward so that she was on her knees, and her forehead was on the ground. "Please, Naruto-sama."

Naruto was speechless. He never expected to see a day where someone was prostrating themselves to him. "I..."

However, before he got a chance to formulate a response, another voice interrupted. "No, it's my fault!" This time, it was Shira who had exclaimed this. "If I stayed with you guys, you wouldn't have had to waste so much time finding me, and waking me up. We could have planned better!" She then proceeded to get down onto her hands and knees, similar to Tori. "So, could you maybe give us another chance?"

'_So, she's still unwilling to sacrifice her own future for those of her comrades...'_ Naruto thought. He then turned to Mamoru. "And? What about you?"

Mamoru jumped a little and turned his head to the side. "W-well, if I paid more attention, then I c-could've stopped Tori from leaving..." He hung his head next. "So, i-it's kind of my fault too..."

Naruto nodded, and then brought his hand to his chin, closing his eyes in thought. On the one hand, they really did fail. But then, technically, so did his team back in the day.

It was only because Kakashi-sensei had given them a second chance to prove themselves that he even became a ninja in the first place.

And Naruto was never one to deny a second chance. They seemed to take this as a learning experience, as well. _'Eh, what the heck. It's not like we ever had the best teamwork.'_ At that thought, a smile appeared on his face. _'Well, at first.'_ "Okay then, I've decided," he said.

The apprehensive trio looked back up at their sensei, hope in their hearts.

"It's time for Konoha to have a brand new Team 7!"

* * *

**Review Time!**

**Oblivious IJ**** \- Yeah, someone beat ya to it. Unfortunate, but oh well. I'm happy you sent one in at all!**

**61394**** \- I'll be honest, I wasn't even thinking of clans when I made these three. Maybe I could use that though...**

**ChillyIce**** \- Thank you! And, indeed, as you saw at the beginning, Naruto has already decided to teach his way, instead of trying to imitate Kakashi. That's not to say he's done with imitation though, _wink wink_.**

**That's all the reviews I could think of responses to, but I also want to thank MaMcMu, HalloweenJesus, and x6568tankx for sending in reviews for Chapter 2.**

* * *

**Phew, Chapter 3.**

**God, you would not believe how difficult it was finding a low-level Lightning Style Jutsu. Well, not difficult, but annoying.**

**See, the Wiki has a list of basically every Jutsu in the series, which you would think would really help for this kind of thing. The annoying part comes in when you realize, there are hundreds of Lightning Jutsus, and all the Wiki does is link to that specific Jutsu's page. So, I had to go through every single Lightning Style Jutsu until I found a suitable one.**

**It's not as simple as just listing only C-Rank Jutsu either. Only two Lightning Style Jutsus are officially C-Rank, one of them, only A, you know, The RAIKAGE, uses, and the other, Kakashi first pulled out against PAIN, so how _that_ classifies as C-Rank, I'll never know.**

**The long of the short is, I wonder if I can send Shira to Kumo to learn Black Lightning...**

**Also, Chapter 4 will probably not be out until the new year. December's the busiest time of the year, after all.**

**So, I'd just like to say, thank you for reading, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to you all!**


	4. Toads, Foxes, and Uchihas

"So, a new Team 7, huh?" A male voice asked.

Naruto nodded happily. "Yup! They haven't exactly gotten the teamwork thing down yet, but, well, you know how Genin are, ya' know."

The pink-haired girl sitting next to Naruto nodded along. "Yeah, especially since you _are_ one," she said.

"Technically, I have no rank. I'm just a wandering ninja now." He shrugged. "Besides, is Naruto really the best person to lead a team?"

"Well, I brought _you_ back, didn't I, Sasuke?" Naruto asked cheekily.

"And I'm glad you did," Sakura said with a blush.

The three of them were currently in a cafe in a small village an hour away from Konoha. Sasuke was still refusing to live in the village, so whenever the three met up, it would be always somewhere close, but not in Konoha.

"And don't think that I'm not either. All I'm saying is..." Sasuke trailed off. Naruto and Sakura both looked at him in confusion. After a moment's contemplation, he decided to say, "you're kind of stupid."

"TAKE THAT BACK, YOU BASTARD, YA' KNOW!" Naruto hopped up on to the table with a shout, startling the other patrons. "Gah!" He then got a swift punch to the head from Sakura. After a moment, the other customers shrugged it off.

"Case in point," Sasuke said.

"Screw you..." Naruto said from his fetal position in his seat. "Besides, it shouldn't be that hard. I mean, it can't any worse than teaching the Academy Students." That got a raised eyebrow from Sasuke and Sakura. "Okay, well not _too much_ worse." Sasuke stared blankly, and Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Well, what are they like?" Sakura asked.

At this, Naruto got a shiny look in his eyes. "Oh, they're just great! You should see them on their D-Ranks!"

"Okay, but that's not really what I meant..." Sakura mumbled.

"Oh, right! Well..." He thought for a moment. "How about I just tell you what a normal mission is like!" Sasuke shrugged and Sakura nodded.

"So, the normal mission day starts..."

* * *

"Team 7, ready to report, sensei!" Naruto called out as he entered the Hokage office.

"Please not another D-Rank..." Shira moaned.

"I don't know, I kind of like them," Tori replied.

"You would." Shira spat out. Tori just nodded happily, whilst Shira groaned again. Mamoru did his best to stay out of their way.

"Ah, Team 7. You're right on time." Kakashi said jovially. "I have a special mission prepared just for you."

Naruto suppressed a shudder at that moment, instead reveling in some acute sadism. After all, it wasn't every day you get to introduce a couple of newbies to _that_ mission.

"Listen up kiddos," Naruto said. "Today, we have a mission directly involved with someone directly related to the Daimyo." That got the typical squabble to die down quickly, leaving only rapt attention left.

"That's right," Kakashi confirmed. He held up a rolled-up scroll, of course hiding the 'D' on the seal. "A VIP related to the Daimyo's wife has gone missing. It's your mission to find him, and bring him back."

Mamoru swallowed heavily. "A-and you're giving this mission to-to us?"

Shira slapped him on the back. "Oh, relax. It just means Hokage-sama trusts us that much!" Not waiting any longer, she ran up and swiped the scroll from the village leader. Quickly breaking open the seal, and ignoring the 'D' that was on it, she unfurled it and read it as fast as she could.

Right when Mamoru and Tori looked over her shoulders and began reading, a loud, angry groan was released.

Naruto suppressed a giggle and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Now you know how important this mission truly is, ya' know," he said, putting on a wise sounding voice.

Shira threw the scroll in his face. "This is bullshit!" she yelled.

"Language," Kakashi said.

"A CAT!? REALLY!? That's this so-called VIP we have to find!?"

"Aw, I love kitties," Tori said.

"Shut it!"

"Eep!"

Mamoru backed away slowly.

Naruto and Kakashi frowned at this.

"Come on then, kiddos!" Naruto said, putting a smile back on his face. "A certain number of D-Ranks is required if you want to get a C-Rank."

"That's stupid. We're ninja, not babysitters, or gardeners, or painters. NINJA!" Shira screamed. Naruto sighed, and just picked her up by her collar. Sure, he may not like D-Ranks either, but at least he was quiet about it.

But then, he wasn't always. It took a lot of growing up to get to that point.

But was it too much to ask for these kids to grow up faster?

* * *

"_Crafter's in position. Over."_ Naruto heard over the earpiece. It was a serious and hard voice. One you wouldn't expect from someone like Mamoru.

"_Nimbus is too. Over."_ This time, it was a softer voice. Tori.

"_Good. How about you, Static? Over."_ Naruto said. He waited for a couple of moments, but there was just silence. _"Static, are you in position? Over."_ He asked again.

"_Yeah, yeah sure."_ Shira scoffed. _"Can we just catch this damn thing already. I see it."_

"_What's it's position? Over."_ Mamoru asked. He really seemed to take this seriously.

"_Uh, I dunno, like, a little ways forward. Doesn't matter, I'm catching it!"_ Shira said, before cutting off her radio.

"_Static, wait! Don't-"_ Mamoru began to say, but was cut off by Naruto.

"_No, let her go."_

"_Huh? But Sensei- er, F-Fox, why?"_

"_She has to learn somehow," _Naruto responded. Mamoru was confused but waited as well.

After a moment, Tori began to say, _"Um, shouldn't we go-"_ but was cut off by an ear-piercing shriek. Mamoru and Tori began quickly racing to where Shira had gone, followed by Naruto.

"Shira! Are you… okay…?" Mamoru asked. He quickly grew confused though at what he saw. In the middle of the clearing, was Shira, holding onto something small and brown, with about a hundred scratches carved into her face.

"I..." she began. "I am going..." She held up her hand and brought some Lightning Chakra into it. "I AM GOING TO SKIN THIS DAMN THING!"

Luckily for Tora the Cat, Naruto plucked her out of Shira's arms at that moment. "Aren't you getting too old for this?" He asked it.

Tora scratched his cheek in return.

* * *

"How is that thing still alive?" Sasuke asked with a shutter.

Naruto shrugged, and Sakura then explained that with the right food, treatment, vets, and what have you, cats could live upward of twenty years. "What, I'm a healer. Tsunade-sama taught me using animals."

"Well, I guess that means that both of you know a lot about cats then!" Naruto concluded.

Sasuke sent him a Mangekyoified Glare.

Naruto ignored it.

"Wait, hold on a second." Sakura objected. "Naruto, you said Shira covered her hand in Lightning Chakra, right?"

"Huh, oh uh, yeah. What about it?"

"What did it look like?"

"Uh..." Naruto brought his hand up for her to see. "It kind of..." He started moving his other hand around the held up one in a wavy motion. Sasuke, watching this, facepalmed. "It went, 'fwaooosh,' and-"

Sakura held up her hand. "Right, dumb question. Okay." She then flipped her held up hand around and activated a Chakra Scalpel. "Did it look like this?"

"Yeah! That's it!" Naruto exclaimed, hitting his fist onto his palm.

"Hm..." Sakura held her hand to her chin in thought. "Did you teach her that?"

Naruto shook his head. "We were doing some individual training, and she just pulled it out! I tell you, she's a regular prodigy!"

"Pfft!" Sasuke snorted from the other side of the table. "Yeah, sure a prodigy."

"What was that, you bastard!?" Naruto tried hopping up on the table again, but Sakura absentmindedly hit him back into the seat.

"It's not hard to do that." Sasuke continued as if nothing happened. He then brought his own hand up, and emulated Sakura's Chakra Scalpel, just with Lightning Style Chakra coating it. "It just takes some knowledge on Lightning Chakra and good Chakra Control."

"That's just it though." Sakura interrupted, hoping to quell the sure-to-ensue squabble. "Most academy students don't learn Elemental Chakra." She muttered as if talking to herself. "Naruto, you didn't teach them about that, did you? You know how much Kakashi-sensei hates that kind of thing."

Naruto once again shook his head. "Nope! It sure was a surprise when she pulled it out during the Bell Test."

"Wait, I thought you would've taught them that already," Sasuke said.

"Well, I'm hoping to wait until we take our first C-Rank to do that. Right now, it's just basic drills."

"That seems… unlike you."

Naruto shrugged. "It makes sense though. It takes Chakra Control to use elements, and aside from teamwork drills, what we're working on is tree and water walking."

Sasuke stared at him like he grew a second head. "Wh-who are you!?"

"The hell's that supposed to mean, ya' know!?" That marked the third punch to the head Naruto received.

"Hey, is Shira from a clan?" Sakura asked after Naruto recovered.

"Huh? Um… Not that I know of."

This caught Sasuke's attention, and he started connecting dots of his own. "Are her family Ninja then?"

"Not that I know of." Sensing the mood, Naruto quickly grew serious. "Wait, hold on, you guys don't think-"

"It's suspicious," Sasuke said simply. Naruto's jaw dropped, and he looked at Sakura. She had a guilty look on her face.

"No way! Nuh-uh! That's not true!" Naruto stood up and slammed on the table.

"Naruto..." Sakura said disappointingly.

"Sakura, in case you haven't realized, we're not in the same world as four years ago. We're not on the brink of war, and spies aren't entering the villages." He clenched his fists. "There's no more reason for all that cloak and dagger stuff."

"That naivete is the reason you aren't fit to be Hokage yet, Naruto," Sasuke said. Unlike the previous statements to rile him up, this one was completely genuine.

"Wh-what?"

"Just because all of the Elemental Nations are allied now doesn't mean anything. All it takes is one bad Kage or one big schism, and all that work goes down the drain." Sasuke's voice was steady, dark, and dull. It was almost like he was reading from a dry textbook.

"Now, hold on a second." Sakura, ever the mediator, butted in again. "Naruto, you know her best out of all of us. How about you tell us what training is like."

After a moment of consideration, Naruto conceded, "fine."

* * *

Naruto watched as his three little Genin fell flat on their butts again, and their reactions were almost like clockwork at this point.

Tori would get up, sigh, turn her head, see that Naruto was watching, and then run at the tree again.

Mamoru would lay on the ground for a moment or two, panting, looking up at the scratch he put on the tree, grit his teeth, and kick off from the ground to go at it again.

Shira would thrash around on the ground for a second, hop back onto her feet, and run at the tree with a battle cry.

Although, saying Shira's reactions were like clockwork was a bit inaccurate. Over time, she grew more and more agitated, each time making it less distance up the tree. Naruto supposed that meant it was time for him to step in.

The next time she fell, Naruto called out to her. "Shira! Come here for a second."

"What do you want, sensei?" She bit out as soon as she finished jogging to him.

"Looks like you're having some trouble, ya' know." He said simply.

She scoffed rudely. "Yeah, which is why I need to get back to trying."

Despite the rudeness, Naruto couldn't help but feel a bit of pride for these kids. He was worried about them giving up when the going went tough, but so far, they proved they were fighters.

He wasn't sure if that would last forever though.

* * *

"Get back on topic, dead last," Sasuke said.

"Screw you!"

* * *

"How are you feeling when you spread the Chakra to your feet?" Naruto asked her.

"Huh?" She tilted her head to the side.

"How do you feel?" Naruto repeated.

"Well, angry. Frustrated. Upset. Take your pick." She crossed her arms with a grunt.

"And the control?"

At that, Shira blinked absently. She then rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "I uh… hehe..."

Naruto chuckled. He figured it was something like that. Back when she used her Lightning Style: Thunderclap Arrow, it did much more damage than it was supposed to.

"Keep it in mind for next time," Naruto told her.

"You got it!" She nodded excitedly and bounced off back to her tree.

Only for an alarm to go off.

Her face fell, and she turned back around to glare at her teacher.

"I guess next time will be two days from now… hehe." Naruto was the one to sheepishly rub the back of his head this time. "Oh!" He then turned to look at Tori. "By the way, don't think I didn't notice you slacking off over there!"

Tori released a small, "eep," distracting Mamoru enough to cause him to fall. He groaned as his back hit the ground hard, but recovered relatively quickly.

"Okay, kiddos! We're gonna be doing some group training!" Naruto said excitedly.

Tori raised her hand. "But isn't that what our missions are for?"

"Yes, Tori, however..." He trailed off, as he searched for the right words. "Ah, I know, there's no real danger involved." He continued innocently.

"W-what!?" Mamoru exclaimed.

"Awesome!" Shira said.

"So that's why..." Naruto bit his thumb. "I'm bringing out someone special! Summoning Jutsu!" A massive plume of smoke filled the small clearing of Training Ground Seven, and a loud 'POP' was heard. Naruto then used a weak Wind Style technique to clear the smoke.

Team 7 stared wide-eyed at where their teacher was just standing. After all, he wasn't there anymore. In is place stood an absolutely massive orange toad. He wore a blue vest, and necklace with a pearl on it, some wraps around his lower body, and was smoking a cigarette.

The toad raised his giant arm in greeting, and said, "yo."

Naruto patted the giant toad's head. "Hey there, Gamakichi! How've you been?"

"**Hey bro. Been doin' just fine! So, what's the meaning of this, 'uh?"**

Naruto chuckled. "I'm gonna need you to challenge these Genin here." Naruto pointed down at the still gobsmacked trio.

"**Oh, these you're students I've been hearin' 'bout?"** Gamakichi brought his hand to his chin, and expected them, leaning forward. This caused the trio to jump slightly. **"Kinda' small, ain't they?"**

"Yup! They don't really work too well together without me either, so I figured if we give them a big challenge, they have to work together!" Naruto nodded to himself in satisfaction.

"**Hm..."** Gamakichi grumbled a bit. **"I dunno… I don't really wanna fight a buncha' pipsqueaks."**

Naruto crouched and lightly slapped the toad. "Aw, come on." Naruto then leaned in close, and whispered, "I'm thinking of letting one sign the toad contract eventually. Think of how the other toads will think of you if you make the next summoner really strong."

"**Hm..."** Gamakichi grumbled again, this time in musing. After a minute, he said, **"alright! You convinced me, bro."**

"Great!" Naruto exclaimed, and then jumped off Gamakichi, and down to his students. "Okay, guys! Here's the assignment." Naruto pointed up at the smoking toad. "Gamakichi here' will be attacking you guys. Your mission is to survive for the next hour."

"Wait..." Shira said, worried. "Isn't this just a little… too dangerous? I mean, what if we mess up?"

"Then you die," Naruto said simply, face hardening. The young trio was caught off guard. "Gamakichi will give you a five-minute head start. Ready?"

"W-wait a second!" Mamoru exclaimed.

"Go!"

The Genin didn't move, instead staring gobsmacked at their Sensei. Naruto tapped his foot. "Well? Your five minutes has begun, ya' know!" That startled the trio enough to get moving, so they jumped into the forest.

"**Hey, bro, is this really a good idea?"** Gamakichi asked.

"It'll be fine. Just make sure not to actually kill them." He then made a so-so motion with his hand. "Just make it seem like you will." With that, Naruto made a couple of Shadow Clones and sent them off to go observe.

"**Ya' know, this'd usually be where Pops would demand sake."**

"Yeah, but you love me." If Naruto was intimidated by the twenty-story toad glaring at him, he didn't show it.

* * *

Shira was feeling… well, she wasn't sure.

The three students had stopped in a small clearing, allowing each a chance to think.

And think Shira did.

Well, it was more like panic quietly about the current situation.

On the one hand, Naruto-Sensei finally gave them something cool to do, not just some painting, cleaning, crop picking, what have you.

On the other hand, however, she wasn't expecting to go against _the_ toad summon that fought against the Ten-Tails during the war.

She wouldn't normally admit this, but right now, there was no way around it.

She was out-classed.

Heavily.

And to top it off, she would have to keep an eye on dead last and loner to make sure they didn't get too hurt.

She didn't want that on her conscience.

Naruto-Sensei would definitely not accept running from this either.

So, what was she going to do?

"Four minutes, kiddos!" they heard Naruto shout out. They all jumped when they heard this.

"W-what'll we do..." Tori mumbled, which confused Shira as Tori seemed like the last person to worry about… well, anything.

"Okay, I've got a plan," Mamoru said seriously. Shira and Tori looked at him expectantly, and he faltered slightly. "W-well, an idea."

When he didn't say anything more, Shira made a rolling motion with her hand, and said, "well? You going to tell us?"

"R-right," Mamoru said embarrassed, but quickly put a serious face on again. "The idea is simple really. Sensei gave us this time for a reason, so it must be to set some traps."

Tori raised her hand, and Shira raised her eyebrow at her. She ignored it. "But what kind of traps could we set for a giant toad that can jump reeeeaaaally far?"

"That's uh..." Mamoru scratched his head beneath his bandanna. "That's what I was trying to figure out..."

An awkward silence passed over the clearing, before Shira screamed, "WHAT!?" Luckily, both of the other two had already predicted such, so had plugged their ears.

Unluckily, the Naruto clone stationed to watch them hadn't and was so surprised, he fell out of the tree he was in and poofed.

"Y'know, it's kinda sad that we can already tell when you're going to scream," Tori said softly.

"Shut it!"

"Eep!"

"Guys, we don't have time for this." Mamoru interrupted, irritably. Shira and Tori were stunned into silence, so Mamoru decided to continue. "Now, any ideas?"

Tori hummed airily, while Shira let out a low grumble. A moment later, a metaphorical light bulb went off in Shira's head, and she said, "I think I got something."

* * *

"Time's up!" Naruto- the real Naruto- called out. He wasn't too sure of what exactly the kiddos had up their sleeves, so he was excited for the show.

Not a second later, Gamakichi came rocketing in, crashing down from the skies right through the canopy, and turning the small clearing into a rather large one. **"All right, ya' brats! Let's see what ya' made of!"** he roared out to them, only for a small electrical jolt to travel up his large frame. **"Eh?"** Looking downward, Gamakichi noticed the forest floor littered with wires, tools, scrolls, basically anything the Genin could get their hands on.

What he stepped on was actually a small storage scroll. _'Wow, Shira managed to put her __Thunderclap Arrow__ into that scroll.'_ Naruto thought to himself. _'That takes tons of control, ya' know!'_

"**Feh."** Kurama huffed from inside Naruto's belly. **"Kit's not bad."** And hey! They even managed to impress Kurama.

That had to count for something.

Gamakichi was impressed too, based on the toady brow raised as he scanned around for his prey.

The second he laid his eyes on an out of place splotch of white though, he put his serious mask back on. He grabbed onto his sheathed blade and quickly cut through the tree the splotch was behind, being careful not to put his full power into it, as he didn't want to cut down the forest.

When the tree fell, he peered over it to notice that what was on the other side was in fact, not Shira as he had assumed, but instead, a… balloon painted white?

That's when another zap hit him, on his back instead of his foot this time.

He quickly whipped around but saw nothing waiting for him. **"So, hit an' run tactics, eh?"** He released a loud chuckle. **"Pretty smart a' ya'."** He then brought his hands together for a second. **"Too bad you're fightin' an animal summon then."** He announced before opening his eyes sharply.

He then focused on a singular point. Just a single hop over, and he found Shira red-handed, loading up another Thunderclap Arrow. Her eyes widened, and she panicked, launching the half-charged attack.

It just tickled Gamakichi.

He laughed a little, before basically flicking her into the tree line, right under where Naruto was watching from.

He barely held in a laugh when he heard her mumble, "again with this shit?" With a heavy grunt and a considerable amount of effort, Shira dragged herself to her feet, and skulked away slowly, hoping to avoid the Toad Summon.

Of course, Naruto knew Gamakichi sensed her. He was probably just going a bit easy.

And thus, the mock battle continued as such. With one student coming out from hiding, shooting something at Gamakichi, and then retreating. All in all, it wasn't a bad strategy. Of course, getting battered each time defeats the point a bit, but still. Not bad.

It wasn't what Naruto had hoped for though. Sure, they were showing the capacity to work together, but anyone could do that. He figured even Danzo and Sasuke could have given proper motivation.

Instead, what Naruto was looking for was that one spark. That one moment where someone does something unexpected that flips the normal interactions on its head.

With that in mind, Naruto called out, "Gamakichi! I think it's time to up the ante, ya' know!"

"**Ya' sure, bro?"** Gamakichi called back.

"Yup, go ahead!"

"**Awrighty then!"** With that, Gamakichi stomped the ground, shaking the clearing enough for the Genin to fall away from their hiding spots. **"You kids ready to take this seriously?"**

The young trio, without even looking at each other, decided that the best course of action was to gather together and form a united front against the giant toad. "Time for Plan B, it seems," Mamoru said seriously.

"I still say this'll get us killed," Shira replied, before jumping off Mamoru and flinging a Thunderclap Arrow at Gamakichi.

"**Again with this?"** He asked exasperatedly, before shaking off the tingly feeling, and moving to slap Shira out of the air. Before he could though, Mamoru suddenly sprung up and grabbed her before she could get hit.

Gamakichi followed her movements the whole time, but when she landed, his eyes widened slightly, and a little smirk grew on his toady lips. Naruto noticed it too.

Tori had used that moment that everyone's eyes were focused on Shira to slip away somewhere.

Gamakichi pretended not to notice the disappearance as Shira fired another blast, and he slammed downwards at her and Mamoru, causing them to jump apart from each other. Gamakichi's instincts told him to keep an eye on Shira first, as she was the strongest.

Shira noticed the Toad Summon focusing on her, and halted her movements. Gamakichi made a show of raising a brow and then lifting his foot to stomp.

Shira confidently began charging another Jutsu, but then, all of a sudden, she dropped. Gamakichi however, was unaware of this, and she was underfoot, so he continued stomping.

Naruto watched with a panic, conflicted between stopping this for the safety of his student, or letting it continue so he could see whether Mamoru would save her. He wracked his brain, constantly flipping back and forth.

Should he be a good Sensei, and save her?

Or should he not stunt the student's growth by letting this continue?

'_What do I do, what do I do, WHAT DO I DO!'_

"_**NARUTO, calm down."**_ chided Kurama inside of him.

'_What do you mean calm down!? Kakashi-sensei would probably leave her there, so wouldn't that be the best option?'_ Naruto screamed at the fox.

Kurama sighed. _**"Listen, I get that this is stressful, but you can't focus on what The Mask would do in this situation. You have to be yourself."**_ He let a wry grin onto his face. **_"After all, when did you ever do things the easy way?"_**

Immediately, Naruto calmed down. Kurama was right, he never let the ideas of the past bog him down, so why should he start now?

He quickly began thinking through this situation. If Gamakichi continued, the Shira likely wouldn't die. He knew that much. Even if she were to be badly injured, Naruto still held remnants of The Sage's Chakra, and he knew that he could save her.

With that thought in mind, he allowed the events to continue, but what happened next shocked him even further.

"Shira!" screamed Tori, as she jumped off Gamakichi's leg _that she was apparently wall walking up_, and she dove under the toad, and right next to Shira, trying to shield her with her body.

This gave Gamakichi enough awareness to quickly move his foot before he crushed the two, and as the duo looked up to him surprised, he sent Naruto a glance. The blond nodded in return and jumped into the clearing.

"TIME'S UP!" he yelled, as he walked over to the downed Shira, followed closely behind by Mamoru. He crouched next to her, and asked softly, "you okay?"

She gave a weak nod, and Naruto grinned. He then sent a little of Kurama's Chakra her way, and she quickly hopped back onto her feet.

"**Good job, kids. You impressed me, surviving this long."** Gamakichi boasted. **"However, I'm a very busy guy, so I gotta split."** He raised his large arm, and said, **"See ya."** Before poofing away.

"Come on, you three, let's get back to the training grounds," Naruto said, before scooping them all up and jumping away.

In less than a second, the trio was back at the regular field.

"Wow, that was-" Shira began but was cut off by Naruto holding up one finger to silence her.

"Okay kiddos. I want you to know that you made me really proud today." He said genuinely as he crouched down to their level. He got three wide-eyed stares in return. "Not only did you three put up a good fight, you realized you were outmatched and used weird moves to take your opponent off guard." He explained. "Reminds me of some stunts I used to pull."

He then patted Mamoru and Tori on the head, remembering that the last time he did that to Shira he got electrocuted. "Take the day off tomorrow to get some rest, okay?" He got three nods in response. "Okay then, run along!" He hopped up and stood back to watch them leave.

He noticed, however, a girl waiting at the edge of the training ground. She had black flowing hair that reached the middle of her back, and short bangs that covered her headband. Her outfit consisted of a simple black outfit, a grey breastplate, arm guards, fishnet tights with a skirt over it, a pouch strapped to her back with bandages, and regular shinobi sandals.

When Shira noticed her, she quickly ran up and began chatting with her, though it didn't appear as if she answered back that much. Naruto, a little worried, secretly made it closer to them, right when Tori was walking past.

"Hey, Tori!" Shira called out. Tori stopped, surprised at hearing her name instead of dead last, and turned to her. "Hey, so… uh..." Shira blushed and scratched her head a little. "Th-thanks." When Tori tilted her head, Shira practically screamed, "FOR SAVING ME! You know… with Gamakichi and..."

"Oh." Tori cut her off and then shook her head. "Don't worry about it. We're teammates!" She said simply, and then began walking again.

"W-wait!" Shira stopped her again. "Do you… want to come to Yakiniku-Q with Asuka-chan and me?" The brunette behind her, named Asuka apparently, had a slightly wide-eyed look, but Tori ignored it.

"A-are you sure..." Tori said uncertainly, letting her smile drop, and her gaze drift.

"Of course I'm sure!" Shira then noticed Mamoru loitering around the entrance too, pretending not to be interested in the conversation. "You too, loner!"

Naruto shook his head and stepped away from the conversation.

Maybe they would be fine after all.

* * *

"Aw, I didn't know one of your students was friends with Asuka-chan." Sakura cooed, confusing both Naruto and Sasuke.

"Wait, Sakura, you know the kid?" Naruto asked her.

Sakura nodded. "She was one of Ino's first patients. Asuka Shimura."

The next thing they knew, Sasuke had slammed the table, and his Sharingan came to life. "Shimura!? As in-"

Sakura cut him off though, with a simple, "Sasuke!"

A moment later, Sasuke cleared his throat and deactivated his Sharingan, but still looked upset. "So, let me get this straight." He said, after a moment. "This student of yours knows Elemental Jutsu, isn't from a Shinobi family, and is a long time friend with this… Asuka Shimura person?" Sasuke scoffed. "You'll excuse me if I don't automatically jump to her side."

"Sasuke." Naruto challenged, and the two became locked in a battle of wits, through what seemed like telepathy, until finally, Sasuke shied away.

"Fine, I'll trust you for now." He said after a moment. He then stood up to leave. "Once I'm done with this mission though, I'm going back and testing her myself."

"Them." Naruto corrected. "I'll only allow it if you test the three together." He said with a tone of finality.

Sasuke conceded with a silent nod.

Naruto shot him a cocky grin. "And I'll make sure they kick your ass!"

Sasuke chuckled. "We'll see."

* * *

**NOTICE: THE SYOC IS NOW OFFICIALLY CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE CHARACTERS.**

* * *

**Reviews:**

**Oblivious**** IJ: ... Damnit Ij.**

**Strength of Fire, Halloween Jesus****: Glad to see you enjoy the trio's development so far, and I hope you enjoy the development they got in this chapter too.**

**TheBloperM****: Yes, that was one thing I wanted to make sure of. I wanted to show Naruto's flaws as a teacher, and I also wanted to explore his self-doubt a bit. Even though he's mostly a big ole knucklehead, he does have his moments, and I wanted to show that.**

* * *

**OH. MY. GOD.**

**It's finally over! It only took two months. God, Writer's Block sucks.**

**Anyway, yeah, I'm not a fan of this chapter, in no way is it my best work, and it's overall just really bad.**

**To give you an idea of what it was like writing this, I ended up writing this over five thousand word chapter around three or four times, because I was just not happy with it. In the end, this is what made the cut, but only because it got across everything I wanted, and I was sick of this.**

**Hopefully, I can get out the next chapter quicker, but no promises.**

**Not sure if this is standard or anything, but:**

**Asuka Shimura belongs to TheBloperM**

**I figure I should give credit where it's due, so in the chapter each of the OC's is introduced, I'll reveal who created them.**

**See you next chapter (hopefully not in two months).**


	5. C-ing the Path

Weed picking.

Tori's least favorite D-Rank.

Sure, there was fence painting, babysitting, or kitty catching, but the most troublesome was most definitely weed picking.

Fence painting was relaxing, she loved kids, and she could claim to get at least a little satisfaction from watching Tora constantly fight Shira.

Weed picking meanwhile, was wet, cold, and just generally annoying.

Unfortunately for her, there was a shortage of fences in need of painting, Asuka and the other Genin were doing perfectly fine with babysitting, and the Daimyo's wife was managing to keep an eye on Tora for once.

Not to mention, mailmen were doing their jobs, there were no stands needed to be put up, no one was hiring Ninja to organize shelves anymore, and construction was becoming more and more automated over time.

So, what was Tori to do when the only jobs in sight were the bane of her existence?

"Okay kiddos, who's ready for more D-Ranks?" Naruto-sensei asked with a grin.

Shira opened her mouth to complain, but was cut off by Tori saying, "Naruto-sensei, why don't we do a C-Rank?"

"Oh?" Naruto questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"FINALLY!" Shira screamed out. She then walked over to Tori to give her a huge hug. "Finally, it's not just me! I'm not alone anymore!"

This confused Tori. "Huh? But you haven't been alone. We've been teammates for a month now."

It took a second, but Tori's words registered in Shira's mind, and she replied with a small smack. "Shut up." She said softly, with a smile on her face.

"Huh? O-okay." Tori backed off. She was just happy that Shira didn't yell at her anymore. Not since they fought that big toad guy. Gama-whatever Shira called him.

Naruto watched on with a smile, before he said, "And what about you, Mamoru?" This brought the two girls' attention onto their third, quiet teammate.

"W-well..." He blushed from the sudden attention. "I do think, m-maybe it's time for a ch-change of pace?" He averted his gaze, keeping his head down.

Naruto brought a hand to his chin, and let loose a hum. After a while though, he smiled and declared, "okay! Let's ask Hokage-sama for a C-Rank!"

Shira cheered, Tori smiled, and Mamoru blushed even more.

* * *

"A C-Rank, huh?" Kakashi drawled, casting a suspicious gaze on the Genin in front of him. Naruto had told them to make their own case for a C-Rank to him, and if he said no, then they weren't allowed to go.

Tori found it a bit unfair, to be honest.

"Yes sir, Hokage-sama," Shira said as calmly as she could. "It is my belief that we are total- er… completely ready for a mission of this caliber…? No, uh, mission of this level." She fumbled as if she was reading a script. Tori could've sworn she heard Naruto-sensei laughing behind her, but she didn't dare turn around.

"I see..." Kakashi replied cryptically. He then glanced above the Genin's heads, seemingly looking at Naruto. Then, after a moment, Kakashi closed his eyes and hummed thoughtfully. He then gave an eye-smile, and said, "alright. I have a C-Rank that would be perfect for Team 7."

Everything was silent for a second, before Shira gasped, and then asked, "you mean it?" When the Hokage nodded, Shira started jumping and whooping. It took Naruto forcefully pushing her back down for her to come to her senses.

"What's the mission then, Hokage-sama?" Tori decided to ask.

"I'm glad you asked," Kakashi said jovially, before pulling out the mission scroll and unfurling it. He cleared his throat, before saying, "Sunagakure has requested our help to set up a mental health clinic. Your mission will be to go to Sunagakure with Ino Yamanaka, and assist in any way you can." Kakashi then rolled the scroll back up and tossed it to Naruto, who caught it with ease. He then signaled to a Chunin in the room, who then brought Ino in.

"Huh?" Shira questioned. "Aren't C-Ranks usually escorting civilians, or beating bandits?"

Kakashi raised his eyebrow minutely before responding, "while yes, that is normally true, truth be told, the Kazekage himself requested that Naruto be sent along. Usually, we would deny a request like this, but seeing as he has a team now..." he trailed off, letting the conclusion be drawn naturally.

"Wait a second..." Tori interrupted. "Why would the Kazekage ask for Naruto-sensei?"

"Obviously, because Naruto-sensei is the best!" Shira exclaimed. "The Kazekage must want sensei to teach him stuff."

Ino snorted. "Looks like someone's part of your fan club, eh Naruto?" She nudged him with her elbow. Shira blushed and shrunk back a little.

"It's not a fan club..." She murmured. "He's just really cool."

"Aw." Ino cooed, messing up Shira's white hair with her hand. "Isn't that adorable?"

"Ahem." Kakashi interrupted. Everyone looked at him. "While I love that you're all getting along, I do have other teams to assign missions to, so if you all could just run along..." He made a shooing motion with his hand, and Naruto obliged, opening the door for everyone.

As everyone walked out, he said, "Okay guys, we'll meet up at the gate in two hours." He patted Mamoru on the shoulder. "Make sure you don't forget anything, and prep for a..." he trailed off, and Ino made a slight gesture. "Two-week trip."

"Yes sensei!" They all chorused and went off running. When they got outside the Hokage Manor, they all split up, Shira heading toward the east Civilian center, Mamoru heading to the Commerce center, and Tori to the orphanage.

While it wasn't something she liked to talk about much, Tori was, in fact, an orphan. Assumedly her parents died during the Fourth Great Ninja War, but she had no clue. It wasn't like they really paid much attention to her before their deaths.

Tori shook her head to clear away the bad thoughts that often occurred when returning to her 'home.' While her home wasn't exactly the orphanage per se, it was an apartment that was owned by it. It was rather dingy and old, and the building wasn't exactly up to regulations, but even still, it's what Tori had to call home.

Arriving at her room, Room 124, she opened the door with a loud creak, and entered the rather dismal living space. Typically, the kids would get a roommate or two to live with, however, Tori ended up being the only one in this room.

She learned to ignore the other kids when they picked on her for being so 'lucky.'

Now though, all the other kids would mostly leave her alone, calling her weird or creepy or saying she smiled too much, so getting in and out of her apartment was simple. As long as she kept her habitual smile on, everyone would stop making fun of her, and she could live in peace.

Alone.

Ignored.

Shaking her head again, she quickly grabbed her pack from her room and began swiping supplies.

It was a dull task. She knew where everything she could possibly need was, and didn't want to stay any longer than necessary, so she got it done in around twenty minutes.

She then threw on her pack, locked her door, and Chakra jumped away from the complex. She would probably get yelled at for it later, as Chakra usage was banned on the property, but she didn't care.

By the time she made it to the gate, she still had about an hour and a half left to wait

So, wait she did.

She sat and waited on a bench, watching each person pass by, whether into the nearby shops and stalls or out into the forest past the gate.

There were people of all kinds walking around. From civilians to merchants, adults to children, even people from the Land of Wind, or Land of Lightning.

She always noticed small things about people when doing stuff like this. From how Kumo citizens were always just a bit more boisterous than others, or how Iwa citizens liked to stay within their own group.

She even began to notice that ninjas would always take a little more caution walking around. A small glace here, a hand on their weapon pouch there.

She couldn't help that niggling thought in the back of her mind. _'Will I really get that paranoid…?'_ She stood up and sighed, shaking her head._ 'What's with me today?'_ She walked over to a storefront to check the clock inside.

Still, an hour left.

It was then that she felt a tap on her back.

She quickly whirled around and came face to face with mischievous blue eyes. "Sup Tori! Daydreamin' again?"

"Oh! Hey Akira!" Akira Hagane, one part of the slacker duo. He had short, messy red hair, and mory toned skin. He wore blue training pants and a red t-shirt, with a silver digital watch and blue shinobi sandals. His blue shinobi headband was worn standard, on his forehead. "What's up?" Tori asked.

"Oh, you know, just going on a shopping trip," he explained a bit venomously.

"Hm?" Tori tilted her head. "Why would _you_ go shopping?"

"Not of my own volition, I wouldn't. Unfortunately, my team seems to have figured out all my tricks, so here I am..." Akira lamented. He then shrugged, with a slightly annoyed look on his face. "What about you though, usually you space out in the park or something, not on main street."

"My team has a C-Rank, so I'm waiting here for them," she told him simply.

"Wh-what!?" Akira shouted, drawing the attention of the people around them. Tori shuffled and got slightly closer to him. "B-but what about us?" He once again yelled, causing the crowd to start filing away, thinking it was just some sort of lover's quarrel.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Tori tilted her head further, not for a second being fooled by the fake teary eyes, or the pathetic sniffles.

"If you go on a C-Rank before any other of our classmates, that means you're no longer a slacker..." His shoulders drooped, and his head fell.

"I uh..." Tori faltered, then pat his shoulder reassuringly. "I can still be a slacker, just once this mission is over, 'kay?"

Akira's head raised, and he looked hopeful. "You mean it?"

Tori nodded, and Akira jumped for joy, screaming to the heavens how he was part of the best slacker duo Konoha would ever see. He then quieted down and smiled at Tori. "Feelin' better now?" he asked.

Tori nodded. "Yeah, thanks."

He smiled softly, before kicking his grin back into action and saying, "Great, now you're in the right state of mind to help me." Tori raised her eyebrow but didn't object. "See, I can't convince my team to do stuff for me anymore, so I was thinking of getting a Genjutsu to help me convince them. I can't ask Kazuto-sensei though, 'cause he's a Nara, so he'll figure it out. Know anyone who can help me?"

"Uh..." Tori tilted her head back and forth with a hand on her chin in thought. "Oh, I know!" She put her fist in her palm in excitement. "Naruto-sensei's girlfriend, Hinata-san. She was trained by the Genjutsu Mistress," or at least, that's what Shira had said. "She would probably know stuff like that." She nodded contentedly to herself. "She also really likes cinnamon rolls."

"Great!" Akira grabbed her wrist, pulled her hand up, and then high fived her. "I knew I could count on you. Now, where does she-" he began asking but was cut off by a screech.

"There you are!" Akira began walking away so quickly, Tori barely even noticed he was gone, but that wasn't enough for the assailant, who caught up to him before he even got five feet away. The attacker was a girl, with dark brown hair tied into a ponytail, with the bangs loosely framing her round face. Matching her face was her equally round teal eyes. She wore black pants that were tucked into black closed-toe boots. A fishnet shirt and gloves that reached to her upper arm were underneath a white dress looking top, that was split from her navel down so it would flare out. Completing the outfit was a teal ninja headband tied around her waist.

"Ah!" Akira exclaimed, both from the pain of her grabbing his ear, and surprise. "M-Misaki, what are you doing here!?"

"Looking for you," she answered simply. "How hard is it to walk to the store, and pick up some baby food?"

"I was going! I was!" Akira held up his hands in defense, not excited to get an earful.

"Then what stopped- oh." She cut herself off, noticing Tori trying to slink away. Misaki marched over and put a hand on her shoulder. "I should've known." She said sweetly. "Putting you two together, nothing will ever get done. It's like the Academy all over again."

Misaki likely would have continued to scold them, had she not been distracted by a call of her name. "Hey, Misaki!"

She looked at the newcomer and smiled. "Oh, it's you, Shira." Tori raised her eyebrow and looked back at the clock she used previously.

It was now five minutes to the meeting time.

"Heya!" She waved a little, she then also waved to Akira. "You too, Akira."

"Save me..." Akira whined. Shira ignored him.

"Hey, I need Tori if you don't mind." She told Misaki. "Everyone's already here."

"Okay." she then released Tori. "You're going on a mission then, I assume?"

"Yup!" Shira exclaimed, popping the 'P.' "Our first C-Rank!"

"A C-Rank!? Is that safe?" Misaki asked worriedly.

Shira made a, 'calm down,' hand motion. "Hokage-sama said so, so it should be fine."

"Oh, if you're at the gate, that means you're leaving, right?" Akira piped up.

Tori nodded. "Yeah, we're headed to Suna."

"Wow, cool! Bring me back a souvenir!" he exclaimed.

Misaki pinched his ear harder. "How do you expect them to buy you a souvenir when you can't even buy baby food?" She then shook her head, ignoring Akira's please of, 'forgive me.' "Well, we shouldn't keep you any longer. Good luck."

"Thanks!" Shira replied with a wave and began dragging Tori towards the gate. When they arrived, Naruto, Ino, and Mamoru were waiting. "Sorry, we're late!" Shira said.

Naruto shook his head. "Nonsense, we're all just early." He then turned to Ino. "Is the client ready to depart?"

She snorted and then walked ahead of them. "Yeah, come on, let's move it!"

* * *

**Reviews:**

**61394****: Would you believe if I said that decision was actually spur of the moment? It fits well with what's coming up though *wink*.**

**TheBloperM: Glad I did Asuka right by you, and I hope to continue to get all the OCs right.**

* * *

**Oh my, it's a short chapter, after the extra-long one last time.**

**Yeah, sorry about that, but the chapter would feel off if I extended into the mission just to reach some arbitrary word length.**

**Speaking of, the first C-Rank mission! Yeah, there wasn't any action this chapter, but the last two focused on it, and this one is just kind of setup, so I think you understand.**

**I'm rather excited for this C-Rank to be honest. You might notice that it's the same mission from Sakura Hiden, which I have never actually read.**

**That's all I'll say on that subject.**

**Also, writing Misaki and Akira was fun as hell. The moment Akira was sent in, I knew these two had to be on a team together. The Mischievous Slacker, and the Uptight Enforcer. Perfect. Poor teammate 3, who isn't revealed yet.**

**Anyway, that's all from me today. Sorry, it took a month for less than 3,000 words, but I promise I'll get more than twelve chapters out by the end of the year.**

**Misaki Kobayashi belongs to ChillyIce**

**Akira Hagane belongs to TheBloperM**


	6. Complications

Chakra Jumping was fun.

That was the first thing Mamoru thought when the group really began their trek. It wasn't like he hadn't used Chakra enhanced jumps during training, but this was the first time he really spent any extended amount of time doing it.

Doing so in the village could attract attention after all, and that wasn't exactly something Mamoru craved.

He didn't have many chances to leave the safety of the village either. Though his family were merchants, ever since… well, they never left the village anymore.

All that meant that this was his first time using Chakra Enhancement for an extended period of time, and it was exhilarating.

Though, it appeared he was the only one experiencing this for the first time, as Shira for sure would have screamed- er mentioned it by now. Or Tori would have made some kind of air-headed comment a couple of miles back.

Mamoru sighed to himself then.

It wasn't that he hated his team. They were just… rather difficult to deal with.

Especially when you had to deal with them six days a week.

Mamoru craved those Tora missions, if only so that he wouldn't have to hear Shira's inane ramblings on whether she should get sweets later, or whether one classmate of theirs liked another.

Speaking of…

"Come on, Tori, spill it!" Shira pleaded.

"No, we're not dating!" Tori wailed back. Mamoru noted the distinct lack of air-headedness, seemingly replaced by pure embarrassment.

Shira scoffed. "That's not what my informants say." She then put on a low voice and clasped her hands together next to her face. "B-but what about us!?"

Tori's face turned red. "Y-you're taking that out of context!"

Mamoru grumbled a bit and shook his head, before speeding up to catch up with Naruto and Ino.

Anything was better than Shira's gossip.

"So, I heard that Shikamaru and Temari finally got together," Ino said. Mamoru nearly fell out of the tree.

"Oh? Took them long enough, ya' know." Naruto responded.

Ino chuckled. "I know, right?"

Naruto then gasped. "Oh! I just remembered. So, I heard that Tenten..."

Mamoru slowed his pace down to try and tune out both conversations, but instead, they just melted into a collection of unintelligible garble.

Mamoru sighed again.

Was this really what this whole mission entailed…?

* * *

"Okay kiddos!" Naruto called out, suddenly stopping in a small clearing. Mamoru gave a silent, 'thank you,' to whatever god was out there as the gossip from earlier was cut off. "This is where we'll be stopping for tonight."

"Here?" Shira asked, and looked around. It was a small dirt field with a line of trees and bushes on the edge. If Mamoru had to guess, he'd say this was a popular spot, though that was nothing more than a hunch.

Ninja hide their tracks, after all.

"Yup, here." Naruto then put on what the Genin trio began to call his teaching face. "Seeing as this is your first time doing this, we've stopped a little early to give you all a little more time, ya' know."

"Time for what?" Tori asked.

Naruto then smiled. "Time for you all to do your nightly chores, of course." He then clapped and pointed straight at them. "Drop your packs." They did so. Naruto shifted his arm to point at Shira. "Okay, Shira, you go out and gather firewood. Make sure it's nothing too wet or large."

"Sir, yes sir!" Shira yelled with a salute and then ran off into the woods.

Naruto then pointed at Tori. "Tori, your job is to watch over the client." He motioned over to Ino, who had started reading a small book. If one looked closely, they might've been able to see a fake cover over it.

Tori gave a soft nod and a goofy, "okay!"

Finally, Naruto's arm shifted to Mamoru. "Mamoru, you're job is to go hunt some food for dinner." He then grabbed a scroll from his pack and handed it to him.

"W-what's this, sensei?" He unfurled the scroll and saw a sealing array in the center.

"You ever fish before?" Naruto asked him.

"U-uh..." Mamoru thought back. He hadn't in a long time, and he didn't exactly remember how it went. The last time he had fished was before the war, with his- "Yes. I can do it alone, too." With that, Mamoru turned around and jumped into the forest with a glare.

"M-Mamoru!?" Naruto called out to him, but he ignored it.

He didn't need to deal with that so-called, 'hero,' right now.

Mamoru scoffed at the thought. _'Hero…__ yeah right,'_ he thought. _'__He's no hero. He can't be...'_

He kept moving further and further, as fast as he could, making twists and turns, and doing his best to just GETAWAY!

At some point, he didn't notice when, the trees began thinning, and the smell of wet soil filled the air. He noticed that just ahead was a lake.

Or at least, that's what he assumed. He couldn't tell do to his blurry vision.

Wait, why was his vision blurry? Why was his face wet, even?

Oh.

Once he made the connection, the tears grew more numerous. His nose began running, and his legs gave out.

He was now just a shivering, sobbing mess on the cold ground. His choked, quiet sobs filled the otherwise silent forest. "I-idiot… Calm down you dumbass!" He berated himself. "You should be over this by now."

"Now now..." A voice called softly beside him. Mamoru wiped his tears and jumped up, ready to attack, only to see none other than Ino standing there. "Attacking yourself like that won't do you any good."

"I-Ino-san? W-what are you doing here?" Mamoru's posture relaxed, and he stood there, still wired, but otherwise naturally.

"Your sensei asked me to check on you." She smiled.

"Oh." He turned away and began walking to the lake. "Well, you can tell him I'm fine."

Ino chuckled a little. Mamoru glanced back a little confused. "You can't just tell the client of a mission to venture alone, can you?"

"Huh, b-but-"

Ino shook her head. "What if I get attacked? How will I ever defend myself?"

Mamoru's mouth opened in shock, but eventually, he said, "f-fine, you can stay with me while I fish." The pair then silently walked over to the lake, and Mamoru unsealed the fishing rod.

As it turned out though, there were two rods in the scroll and a bucket of bait. As he looked at this, Mamoru felt a pang of guilt filter through his stomach.

He let loose an audible sigh, and attached the bait to one of the fishing rods, resealing the other afterward.

After a couple of minutes of sitting on the bank, waiting for something to bite, Mamoru said, "I didn't mean to worry sensei like that..."

Ino looked up from the book she began reading but didn't say anything.

Mamoru seemingly didn't notice, still looking at where his line was cast. He continued anyway. "I-I guess I have a couple of issues." He chuckled a little. "My dad died during the war." He explained. "He was… amazing." Ino by this point had put her book down. "You might think he was just a regular civilian merchant, but to me, he was everything." Tears were streaming down Mamoru's face. "One of his favorite things to do with me was fishing, so..." His eyes then widened suddenly, and his face became a brilliant shade of red. "I-I don't know w-why I said any of this..."

Ino didn't say anything. She just slid close and brought him into a hug.

"Th-thanks, Ino-san." Mamoru leaned into the hug. He then felt Ino shake her head.

"Sometimes all you need is someone to listen." She then backed up and looked into his eyes. "You may not have realized it, but you've been dying to tell someone this."

Mamoru opened his mouth to reply, but was all of a sudden lifted by Ino, and carried in a jump as the place they were just sitting at exploded. "W-what!?" He exclaimed as he was unceremoniously dropped, and Ino turned quickly to where the explosion happened.

"What..." Ino stared in shock as in the clearing smoke stood two masked individuals in black robes, completely obscuring their figures.

That's not what caught Ino's attention, however.

What really worried Ino was the bubbling red Chakra shrouding both individuals. "Th-that's impossible..." she murmured.

Without any warning, the one on the right burst forward incredibly fast, and it was all Ino could do to grab Mamoru and get out of the way again. "I-Ino-san! What's going on?"

"Stay behind me!" Ino commanded, not answering his question. The Chakra cloaked figure dashed forward again, but this time, Ino was ready.

She launched a quick Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu, and when the figure jumped to the side, they were caught in a Chakra Hair Trap Jutsu she had set up whilst jumping away from the first attack. Now that they were trapped, Ino launched off a Water Style: Rising Water Slicer Jutsu, aimed diagonally at the legs in an attempt to remove them.

The figure, however, just disrupted the hair trap, and jumped backward, away from where a water jet burst from the ground ready to dismember some limbs. Once he was a decent distance away, Ino pushed Mamoru backward, and said, "get back to Naruto. Tell him what's happening."

He nodded and took off back into the forest, not looking back.

The only problem was that Mamoru had no idea how to get back. His mad dash away from his teacher saw to it that he was pretty much lost.

He also knew though, that now was no time to hesitate, so he kept trekking forth, trying to move in the general direction he came from. _'Let's see… I think I recognize that rock formation, so-'_

_BOOM_

Mamoru jumped and looked backward. What he saw nearly made him pass out from fear. Right behind him was the other cloaked figure. The one who wasn't attacking Ino.

The pure pressure emitted from the attacker was immense. The pure killing intent nearly made him puke. His legs shook, his mind went crazy, he subconsciously reached for a kunai.

The figure took a step.

Mamoru's legs gave out, and he actually did puke now.

Another step.

Mamoru's hand holding the kunai began moving on its own. Still shaking wildly, the arm began moving towards his chest.

Until, all of a sudden, it missed. Panting heavily, Mamoru began talking to himself. "Come on… You've felt this before… It's nothing… Calm down..." He repeated himself over and over again, using his left hand to hold down his right, the one holding the kunai.

Even then, it was wildly difficult. This Killing Intent… concentrated on solely him. He'd never felt it this intense before.

Sweat began pouring down down his brow, falling in the bile still gathered in front of him.

Even still, the figure was inching ever closer. The blank expression on the mask almost taunting, as though the figure didn't even notice how much Mamoru was struggling.

Each step was relaxed and heavy. Like they didn't even care about the kid dying in front of them. Each step crunched leaves and broke branches.

It reminded Mamoru of a clock.

Each tick counting towards his death

_Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick._

It almost felt relieving, when the figure finally stepped in front of Mamoru. Finally, he would no longer have to struggle through the bog of Killing Intent.

The figure bent down and reached down towards him.

Mamoru sat, frozen, watching this all play.

Was this really the end? Before he even got to be a real Ninja?

Before he could avenge his father?

The hand reached closer and closer and closer and closer.

Then, like a ray of light shining down into hell, a flash of orange appeared. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" a voice grumbled out.

If Mamoru had the presence of mind, he would've noted how animalistic it sounded.

However, he didn't. In fact, that familiar color almost made him... tired.

Yes. Tired was the word.

So tired in fact, that he felt he should just sleep here.

Even if it was something Tori would've done, he couldn't find it in him to argue right now.

So, sleep he did.

* * *

Naruto was pissed.

Well, correction, he was pissed now. Before, he was confused, and maybe a bit heartbroken.

He didn't know why Mamoru didn't seem to like him much, but that's why he sent Ino to check on him. He couldn't claim to be an expert on the mind, even if he did have a bit of an idea as to what the problem was.

No, he was pissed now because someone had not only decided to somehow siphon some of Kurama's Chakra, but attack his student with it.

That was unforgivable.

He first noticed something was wrong when the negative emotions he was sensing suddenly ramped up all of a sudden. Still, though, he didn't worry too much. He figured Ino must've drudged up something sensitive.

He didn't worry until he felt a Chakra spike he hadn't felt in a while.

He hadn't felt this malicious Chakra since the Fourth Great Ninja War. Though Kurama did object to it being malicious.

Without warning, Naruto flashed away to where he felt the Chakra coming from, causing a shout of surprise from Tori, who was worrying in her own way by her sleeping bag.

He paid no mind to it though.

Instead, he focused on finding the source of the Chakra.

Which he soon found in the form of some robed, masked figure with a Tailed Beast Chakra Cloak cockily approaching Mamoru.

Without even thinking about it, Naruto rushed forward, and grabbing the figure's wrist, saying, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The figure panicked and tried pulling out of his grasp, but Naruto's grip was too strong. So, the figure decided to throw a punch towards his face with their free hand.

Naruto just grabbed their other wrist, before setting in a glare. "Did you hear me?"

The figure didn't say anything. Instead, they began sucking in air. Naruto gasped, and prepped for the incoming blast, but then remembered Mamoru was right behind him. He quickly looked back and noticed that Mamoru was passed out.

"Damn it!" Naruto released his grip, and scooped up Mamoru, jumping away, watching as the spot Mamoru was just laying was completely leveled with a blast of wind.

"_**He wasn't even aiming for you,"**_ Kurama noted.

'_Typical villain type.'_ Naruto responded. He then activated his Chakra mode and dashed back to the clearing. When he got there, he noticed that Shira had gotten back, but he paid it no mind.

Tori and Shira, upon seeing him, didn't instantly recognize him. "Shira. Tori."

"S-sensei? Is that you?" Tori asked. Naruto nodded, then set Mamoru down. "Mamoru!" The two ran over to him.

"Protect him. I'll be right back." Naruto said, then prepped another dash into the forest. However, before he could, the cloaked figure burst into the clearing and ran right towards the students.

Naruto reacted quickly, forming a Rasengan in his right hand, and then using a Chakra hand to hit the figure with it, right in the head, knocking the figure to the ground. This had the added effect of blowing apart the mask the figure was wearing, revealing a pale, female face.

Naruto barely took a moment to register this, before running over, and jumping on top of the girl, and restricting her with more Chakra arms. _'Good thing I've been practicing this.'_ he thought, as he drew a Chakra restriction seal on the girl.

"There." Naruto breathed out. "Now, are you finally ready to answer some questions?"

She didn't answer, instead, trying to headbutt him.

Naruto in response flipped her over on to her stomach and pressed his elbow into her back. "Let's try this again."

The girl struggled some more, but eventually gave up, and laid there on the ground. "Fine." She eventually said.

"That's better!" Naruto replied. "So, how'd you get Kurama's Chakra?"

"Kurama's..." Shira muttered. She and Tori were both stunned over the whole thing. However, Shira had the presence of mind to notice something. The lady was smirking.

"Oh, you know..." She began, and her smirk widened.

"Naruto-sensei!" Shira screamed.

"Huh?" Naruto noticed some sort of curse mark spreading over the woman's body, and quickly jumped away.

Just in time too, as of right when he separated, she _exploded._

"What the..." Naruto muttered. However, he had no time to think about this as he still felt Chakra from where the nearby lake was. Without warning, he sped away to the lake.

However, when he got there, all he saw was an injured Ino kneeling on the ground. "Ino!" he called.

"Naruto!" Ino stood up and winced slightly.

"Hold on." Naruto put his hand on Ino's shoulder and filtered some of Kurama's Chakra into her. Ino let out a relieved sigh.

"Thanks, that feels much better." She said softly, only for her grin to turn wicked soon after. "Now I know why Hinata always sounds so satisfied..."

Naruto blushed slightly, but otherwise ignored her, feeling for Kurama's Chakra, but he felt nothing. _**"There's no negative emotions around either, aside from your little kits,"**_ Kurama told him.

'_So, this guy managed to wipe his emotions clean as well?'_ Naruto noted.

He then shook his head and sighed. "Do you think we should return to the village?" Ino asked him.

"Hm..." Naruto thought for a moment, before shaking his head. "I think we should return to the kids before all else." He then let the glowing Chakra around him dissipate, bringing him back to his normal self.

"You're right," Ino replied.

On the way back, Naruto asked, "So, what happened?"

Ino sighed. "I'm not too sure. These two guys with your Chakra shroud appeared while Mamoru was fishing, and one of them attacked. I told Mamoru to go get you, but then the one who didn't attack me went after him." She shook her head and clenched her fists. "I tried to stop them, but the one attacking me wouldn't let up. I couldn't do anything." She then unclenched her fists and smiled at him gratefully. "Good thing you appeared when you did."

"Yeah, you're right," Naruto replied happily. "The thing I'm worried about is how they got ahold of Kurama's Chakra..." With that, they arrived back at the clearing, with Tori and Shira still shaken up.

"S-sensei..." Tori muttered, looking around at her surroundings. The clearing was a total mess, with a large crater near the edge, and rocks and soil displaced everywhere.

It really did show how bad that explosion was.

Naruto though… "Ah, yeah… This kind of thing happens a lot around me..." He just rubbed his head sheepishly.

Ino just facepalmed.

* * *

When Mamoru awoke, it was the middle of the night.

He immediately shot up and looked around, only to wince in pain. _'Bad idea...'_

"Mamoru?" Someone whispered. He looked to where the voice came from and saw a splash of white.

"Shira?" His voice came out raspy and quiet. He noted how weird it was hearing her be quiet.

"Oh good, you're awake. I was getting worried." She kneeled next to him and pushed him back down into a laying position.

"Wh-what happened…?" He accepted the position, and just stared straight up. He didn't remember taking out his sleeping bag, and he idly wondered who brought it out for him.

"That lady that attacked you. Naruto-sensei finished her off, but then she exploded. We didn't realize at first, but a couple of rocks landed on you from it..." Shira looked down sadly, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Sh-she exploded?" Mamoru asked bewildered, almost laughing at the absurdity.

"Yeah… sensei said something about curses or something, but I honestly didn't pay attention." She chuckled and rubbed the back of her head.

Mamoru was about to respond but yawned instead. "E-excuse me," he said, embarrassed.

Shira just chuckled a little. "Don't worry about it. You should get back to sleep anyway. Sensei's gonna talk to us in the morning." She pulled the covers up on Mamoru, before smirking cheekily and saying, "If you're awake lazy bones."

"Hey, I thought Tori was the lazy one," Mamoru said without thinking, before covering his mouth quickly.

Shira looked at him with wide eyes, before giggling. "Good night." She said as she calmed down and left.

Mamoru snuggled up a little into his sleeping back and felt his drowsiness pulling him back into the world of sleep.

'_She's… not that… bad...'_

* * *

**Reviews:**

**ChillyIce: I believe you have received your answer in this chapter.**

**TheBloperM****: Glad you approved of the use of Akira last chapter. He was an incredibly fun character to write, and I couldn't help but reference at the beginning of this one.**

* * *

**Okay…**

**I have no idea what the hell happened for this chapter.**

**I had a solid plan, and then Mamoru decided, 'NOPE,' and I have this…**

**I didn't expect him to be so… Sasuke-ish, but I guess that's just how he is now. Also, yes, I completed a chapter in less than a month.**

**It's a Christmas miracle.**

**Hopefully, I can keep up this momentum.**

**I also realized that I really can't write fight scenes…**

**Like, at all.**

**Or maybe it's just writing a fight scene involving Naruto because I did... okay with Ino's I think.**

**Either way, not a huge vote of confidence for later in this fic, I'll tell ya' that.**


	7. The Nature of It All

_Boom._

A loud crash echoed out. People in the streets were panicking, and ninja were all lying around in various states of injury.

"No… how could this happen?" Someone asked. The voice was unclear and distorted in a static.

"What do we do?" Another voice asked. This one was slightly more defined, and the speaker was obviously male. He was lying on the ground, blood pooling around him.

"Don't worry!" A third voice cried. This one was the clearest of all, and the speaker stood up from the ground. White hair tied in a ponytail and a torn haori billowing in the wind.

"Shira!" Someone else yelled, this voice being another distorted one.

Shira held out her arm as she turned away, giving a thumbs up to the crowd behind her. "Don't worry. I'll be the hero everyone needs!"

"You got this Shira!"

"You're damn right I do!" Shira screamed as she ran off, laughing madly in the torn-up streets. "_I'm_ the hero!"

Then all of a sudden, everything went black, and the only thing Shira heard was a shout of, "Rise and shine!"

'_Hey, that sounds like...'_

* * *

"Rise and shine there kiddos!" Naruto shouted, knocking Shira out of slumber.

"S-sensei…?" Shira mumbled out. "Wha' time izzit?"

"Time to wake up, ya' know!" He shouted, ever enthusiastically. A part of Shira wanted to hop up and shout with him.

The rest wanted to sleep.

Mornings were the absolute worst.

'_That dream again?'_ Shira had been having that same dream for a while, and each time, it filled her with a sensation of butterflies in her stomach. Each morning after, she would always feel energized, and ready to tackle the day.

That feeling was a little muted from sleep deprivation, though.

"C-come on, Shira." She was now being shaken a bit, and softly chided by Mamoru.

"Shouldn't you be laying down?" Shira questioned, a bit more coherently now that she had her thoughts together.

"I-I feel better already, though."

"BULLSHIT!" Shira screamed as she jumped out of her sleeping bag. Mamoru was just sitting there with a slight grin on his face. "Why is it the moment you decide to stop being a shadow, you become a pain in the ass?"

"B-because we need to wake up Tori..." Mamoru shrunk away slightly from her questioning gaze at the response.

"Really?" If Shira's reply was any flatter, it would be concave. Mamoru at least had the decency to blush. Shira sighed. "Nope!"

"H-huh?"

"If you're gonna go through the trouble of waking _me_ up, then do the same for her too." Mamoru had a look in his eyes that Shira couldn't describe, but she continued anyway. "She's been ignored for too long as it is..." She said quietly, and a bit ashamed.

After all, she was part of that problem as well.

After a bit of silence, Mamoru nodded. "O-okay, I'll go wake her up, then."

"Have fun," Shira called and then started rolling up her sleeping bag to put away.

She then grabbed a change of clothes for the morning and was about to walk away to change, but she then remembered the events of yesterday.

The pure pressure of that attacker…

She set her change of clothes back in her pack, for now, deciding to wait for Tori to get up to go change.

Buddy system, and all that. _'Wait, how do teams with only one girl do this then…?'_ She thought. She then shook the thought away, figuring it wasn't that important.

Shira decided then to just walk around and stretch her legs for a bit. Slipping on her sandals, and taking a deep breath, she felt peaceful.

Though the crater from last night was still there, she didn't think much about it. Instead focusing on the little things.

The morning dew and long grass tickling her exposed toes. The faint scent of wet air. The pale bluish-gray sky, and long early morning shadows cast by the trees around her.

This wasn't a scene Shira could remember ever experiencing before.

"It's something special, isn't it?" Her hero asked her, walking up next to her.

Shira nodded. "I didn't think mornings could be this nice."

Naruto looked over at Mamoru still attempting to wake Tori up. "It's important to be able to have this." He told Shira. "Especially after what happened yesterday."

Shira noticed a strange look in Naruto's eyes. She was about to ask him about it, but Mamoru interrupted her by arriving next to her. "She's not waking up." He explained.

"Fine~" Shira walked over to where Tori was still sleeping and pressed a hand on her face. "Tori, you have three seconds to wake up. This is your final warning."

Tori just snored.

"Alright then, I warned you." Shira started charging Chakra in her palm, and a moment later…

…

"YEEEEOOOOOOWWW!" Tori hopped out of her sleeping bag with a mighty yell, her normally pristine hair all frizzed from the static electricity.

"Awake?" Shira asked cheekily.

The glare Tori leveled at her would scare even the mightiest of baby rabbits.

* * *

"Okay, everyone." Naruto began. Him, Shira, Tori, Mamoru, and Ino were all gathered in a circle after getting ready for the day. "We have a serious matter to discuss."

"What's up, sensei?" Tori asked, her airy tone almost sounding exaggerated now that Shira was used to a normal tone.

"This concerns the rest of this mission," Naruto informed them. He eyed the visible bandages on Mamoru. "After what happened, do you want to continue?"

"Huh? What do you mean sensei?" Shira questioned.

"You two wouldn't know this." Ino started, referring to Shira and Tori. "But, there were two attackers yesterday. One of them got away."

Tori and Shira's eyes widened considerably. Naruto nodded. "They might come back for us." He eyed the three Genin. "I decided to leave it up to you three, whether we continue or not."

"Wh-what?" Mamoru stuttered. "Why would you l-leave it up to us?" The other two nodded and stared at Naruto expectantly.

Naruto sighed. "Well, it's simple." He gestured to himself, then Ino, then the three of them. "We're all part of this mission." He then pointed at himself. "By myself, I would continue, but..." He trailed off, ambiguously eyeing the students.

The Genin all traded looks. They ranged from worried to pensive to confident to happy. No one emotion remained for more than a second.

Shira thought hard, racking her mind for what she wanted.

'_The answer should be obvious.'_ She thought. _'Of course, I want to continue… but...'_ She looked at Mamoru's bandages, then at the crater.

She remembered the fear that shook her to her core as Naruto-sensei disappeared all of a sudden. The complete wrongness she felt as his eyes grew serious, and that sensation of instinctual terror when he turned on that stranger orange glow.

She knew, on an intellectual level, that that was the power that saved lives during the war.

However, seeing it in action…

The thoughts made the air feel heavy around her, and all of a sudden, she was hyper-aware of the gaze her sensei had on her.

But still…

She remembered that dream. That feeling of giddiness it gave her.

The sense of importance it had.

She had to achieve that same sense of importance.

"I say, we continue," Shira announced to everyone.

"Huh?" Tori tilted her head. "Why's that?"

"Well..." Shira looked away for a second, before looking back at Tori and Mamoru with steely determination. "This mission will help the people in Suna." She tightened her grip. "Don't you want to be apart of the group that brought this to the people in need?"

Mamoru got a strange look in his eyes that Shira couldn't place, but before she could question it, Tori said, "Yeah! I think we should continue too!"

After a moment of hesitation, Mamoru also raised his hand. In a quiet voice, he said, "Y-yeah, okay."

Naruto closed his eyes and nodded. A moment later, he said, "Okay, we'll keep moving as right away. I just have to send a messenger to Kakashi-sensei first."

He then flipped through the hand signs, and called out, "Summoning Jutsu!"

* * *

It was only a day later when Shira began noticing how few trees there were. The lack of trees forced the group to just walk on the path.

"Sensei… can't we just run? Why do we have to walk!?" Shira whined.

"Now now, it's not like we're in any big rush." Naruto took a swig of water from his canteen, and then continued, "Plus, you'll want to save your energy for the desert."

Shira released a sigh and slouched a little. "Fine… but can't you teach us any cool Jutsus?"

Naruto stopped and hummed for a second. He then shrugged. "That depends." He then turned around to face the group, as he was walking ahead of them previously. "Are you guys fine stopping here for today?"

Shira nodded enthusiastically, and Mamoru mumbled something about sore feet.

Tori flopped onto the ground.

"Okay then." Naruto drawled. He then said something to Ino that Shira couldn't hear.

Ino sighed and shook her head.

Naruto brought his hands together and gave her some… Ryo?

Ino tilted her head back and forth before finally nodding, and running off.

Naruto sighed, but then turned back to his now confused Genin, and cleared his throat. "Okay, let's see your tree climbing."

The three grumbled, quietly on Mamoru's part, opened mouth on Shira's, but did it anyway. They all ran over to a tree and climbed up it like it was nothing.

They all sat on one of the higher branches and looked down at their teacher.

He was grinning. "Great job you three, that's an excellent first step, ya' know. Now come back down."

They did just that. Shira lept between the trees, Tori slid her way down, and Mamoru just walked normally.

"So?" Shira asked, nearly hopping in place. "What's the cool Jutsu you'll be teaching us!?"

"Well..." Naruto began. "We aren't learning _just_ yet."

And with that, Shira deflated. "Whaaaaaaaat?"

Naruto made a, 'calm down,' motion. "Uh, it's like this." Naruto hummed as he thought. "See, learning real attacking Ninjutsu takes quite a bit, ya' know. You need both good control, and the necessary strength."

"So, you want us to do some exercise?" Tori asked. "Don't we already do enough of that on training days?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, I mean necessary Chakra strength. The ability to force Chakra away from your body." Naruto then leaped up to the top of the tree they had climbed. "For instance, we make large jumps because we use Chakra from our feet to push us." He then stayed up there and looked around for a second.

He then jumped back down and hummed in thought. After a moment of silence, he sighed. "Well, I wanted to introduce you guys to water walking, but it seems that there isn't a river or lake close enough right now."

The three students looked at each other. Shira shrugged, and Tori tilted her head.

A moment later, Mamoru sighed. "Well, is there anything that uses the same properties, then?" He eventually asked.

Naruto looked at him strangely for a second but then pointed and screamed.

Mamoru jumped, startled.

"I know!" Naruto then bit his thumb and did a Summoning Jutsu.

"**Huh?"** The small summoned toad looked around, before spotting Naruto. **"Ah! Naruto-sama. Greetings!"** The green and yellow toad gave an approximation of a bow. **"What can I do for you today?"**

"Hey there, Gamajisan." Naruto waved, and then put his hands together. "Can you do me a real quick favor?"

Gamajisan nodded, and said, **"Anything for you, Naruto-sama."**

Naruto scowled a little but continued nevertheless. "Can you grab my scroll full of water balloons from Mount Myoboku?"

Gamajisan nodded, and said, **"Of course."** He then poofed away.

"He's kind of wordy, huh?" Shira said to no one in particular.

"Yeah..." Naruto sighed. "He's one of the younger ones. Sees me as this great sage."

Before they could continue, Gamajisan summoned himself back. **"Here you go, Naruto-sama"** He pushed the scroll over to Naruto.

"Great, thanks, Gamajisan, ya' know!" He grabbed it, then unfurled it.

"**Do you need anything else, Naruto-sama?"** Gamajisan asked.

"Nope!" Activating the seal, a pile of water balloons appeared.

"**Very well."** The young toad gave another toady bow. **"Have a nice day."** He then disappeared again.

Naruto stood up, holding three different balloons, and handed them each over to one of the students.

"What's this for, sensei?" Tori asked.

Naruto didn't say anything. He just held out his hand, with his own water balloon on it.

The Genin watched carefully.

Before their very eyes, the water balloon began shifting, almost pulsing on Naruto's palm.

"Wow!" Shira exclaimed. "You're doing that with just Chakra!?"

Naruto nodded. "Yup! And if you get good enough at it..." He then focused back on the balloon, causing the teenagers to do the same.

After a little more shifting and pulsing, the surfaces of the balloon began expanding, and becoming slightly wilder, until-

_POP!_

If finally popped, soaking Naruto's hand.

"W-with just a single hand!?" Shira yelled.

"Wow!" Tori exclaimed along with her.

Mamoru looked on with a surprised look.

Naruto grinned. "Now, are you ready to try it?"

"YEAH!"

* * *

"Damn it..." Shira muttered. Every time she tried to push her Chakra onto the balloon, it would affect the balloon, but not the water inside.

She looked at the other two.

It seemed neither of them got it either.

"What are we doing wrong…?" She asked herself.

"I'm back!" A voice called out. Everyone looked over, and saw Ino, holding a small baggy, full of what looked to be paper. She then immediately walked up to Naruto, and said, "You better fulfill your end of the bargain, Naruto!"

"Right, of course." Naruto rubbed the back of his head as he was handed the small bag. He then opened it up and took out one slip of paper. "Alright, kiddos. Put the exercise on hold for now, and get your butts over here!"

Shira sighed as she stopped exfoliating Chakra. As soon as she decided to set down the balloon though, she noticed that her hand was shaking slightly. _'That's weird.'_ It didn't hurt, so she decided to just ignore it for now.

"Look here, kiddos," Naruto said and brought the trio's attention to the square paper he was holding. He held it in between his middle and pointer finger. "This here is a special piece of paper." In less than a second, all of a sudden, the paper split in two.

"Cool! Is it like that water balloon thing?" Tori asked.

Naruto shook his head. "Not really. You see, this paper is harvested from a special tree that holds Chakra. When turned into paper, it becomes very Chakra receptive, and when you channel some into it, it'll react." He then handed a slip to Ino.

"It doesn't always split either," Ino said, and the paper she was holding crumbled into dirt. "It changes, depending on what kind of Chakra nature you have." She shook her hand, and the last bits of crumbled dirt left her skin. "I have Earth nature, and Naruto has Wind."

Naruto nodded this time. He then handed a small piece of paper to his students. "Shira, your nature is Lighting, right?" He asked as he gave her her own.

Shira shrugged. "I dunno, maybe. How do you know?"

"Well," Naruto began. "Doing Jutsus that match your nature is easier."

"Oh, that makes sense." Shira thought back to when she first learned Lightning Style: Thunderclap Arrow. "My parents just told me how to do the Jutsu and I learned it. They didn't tell me about all this nature crap."

"I see..." Naruto said with a hand on his chin. He then shrugged. "Whatever, anyway, how 'bout you all try out you Chakra natures then."

"Okay! Me first!" Shira yelled, and clapped her hands around the sheet of paper. _'Focus...'_ She thought to herself as she pushed her Chakra into the paper. She felt something change, and when she lifted her hand away, the paper was crumpled. "Uh oh, did I hold it too hard?"

"Nope!" Naruto said. "That just means you're nature is Lightning, ya' know!"

"Aw..." Shira sighed a little. "I was kinda hoping it would be something different."

Naruto ruffled her hair a bit. "Don't fret. That just means you already have a basis for learning new Jutsus."

"Aw cool." She replied. "I'm ahead!"

He nodded, then cleared his throat, turning on his teaching voice. "Lightning nature is good for fast movement, and it's also the most precise. It's the nature of assassinations." Shira nodded along. "Our Hokage, Kakashi Hatake, also has this Chakra nature."

Shira had stars in her eyes at this point.

Naruto then moved onto to Mamoru next. It only took a glance for him to do the same thing as Shira. With a clap and a moment of focus, Mamoru lifted his off-hand away to find that his main hand now had a layer of dirt on it.

"Earth?" Mamoru muttered.

"Hey, that means you're like me?" Ino exclaimed, standing a little away from the group. "Earth nature is good for defense, and it's also the easiest to learn and utilize. Many Jutsus utilize the ground around the user for the easiest use, but creating Earth is also possible. Just very difficult."

Mamoru nodded with an, "okay!"

Naruto figured that's all he would get out of him, so he moved onto Tori. "You ready?" He asked her.

She nodded with a determined look on her face and looked right at the paper she was holding. She then moved to clap it between her hands, but Naruto noticed something. He grabbed the paper before she could fully concentrate, and looked at it.

When Shira took a closer look, she noticed it too.

The paper was already partially split.

"Sensei?" Tori asked, with a small head tilt.

"Ah!" He hurriedly gave her a fresh paper. "Sorry, I don't know what happened. That one was already cut, so here's a new one."

Tori nodded blankly and then clapped her hands together. After a second, she brought her hands away and looked at the result. "Huh?"

She lifted both halves of the split paper, and water dripped from it.

Wait…

"WHAAAAAT!?" Shira screamed.

"Th-that's..." Naruto sputtered.

Ino and Mamoru were both speechless.

Nobody spoke for a full minute.

Finally, Tori asked, "S-sensei, did I do something wrong?"

"Oh, uh." Naruto cleared his throat. "No no no, you didn't do anything wrong, I was just a little surprised, is all." He then took another slip and asked her to do it again, just to confirm something.

She did, and the same thing happened. It split and became wet.

"I see..." Naruto muttered. He then grinned and laughed a little. "This is great! See, this is incredibly rare, but it appears you have two Chakra natures."

'_Huh?'_ Shira thought. _'Th-the dead last has two natures!?'_ She then shook her head. _'No, you swore you wouldn't think like that anymore, idiot.'_

"Let me explain these, ya' know." Naruto began. "So, as you saw, my Wind nature causes the paper to split, and yours did too, so that means that you have Wind." Tori nodded. "The paper grows damp if you have a Water nature, and since no one here has it, it'd burn for Fire."

"So, I have both Wind and Water?" Tori pondered.

"Exactly, ya' know!" Naruto shouted. "Water nature is the gentlest, and the most malleable. You can form it into any shape you want. Wind, meanwhile, is the most offensive. It's able to cut through things with ease."

Naruto then walked slightly away, and then faced all of the kids. "It looks like you all have different natures, which is good. It means you can all be balanced as a unit." He then signaled for everyone to follow him. "Since I'm a bit excited, we're gonna spend the rest of today training you three to utilize your natures, ya' know!"

"All right!" Shira hopped in place and bolted up next to Naruto. "Hey, hey, sensei! You think I can get Hokage-sama to train me?"

Naruto hummed, then chuckled. "Not likely. He barely trained me, and I was his student."

Shira slumped with a sigh.

"Though..." Naruto offered. Shira looked up, hopeful. "I do know _someone_ with a Lightning nature."

"Cool! I hope they can teach me soon." Shira pumped her fist excitedly. "Next time those masked bastards show up, I wanna be able to sock 'em, right in the face!"

Naruto full-on belly laughed. "Well, you're gonna have to get much stronger to do that, ya' know!"

Shira nodded and steeled herself for a night full of training.

Though, she couldn't help but think.

What was that one that lived doing right now?

* * *

"Um… Tsumiki-san?"

In the high-class sector of Konoha, right next to the Hokage mansion, a man in robes and a mask appeared in a small lab.

"Yes, what is it, Magire?" The man at the main desk asked. On said desk appeared to be a stack of tax papers, and a small flask of whiskey next to the papers that made clear what was thought of them.

"Well, the field test..." Magire began, grabbing his white robes from a portable clothing rack. "There was a problem, that's all."

Tsumiki sighed and leaned back in his chair. "What was the problem?" He then looked around. "Does it have to do with why Shiryo isn't here?"

Magire nodded. "During our field test, we attracted the ire of Naruto Uzumaki, that's all."

"I assume that's why I felt my Curse Mark Jutsu activate?" Tsumiki asked rhetorically.

Magire nodded again and then took off his mask, placing it on the corner of the desk. "Shiryo was captured." Magire then walked over to a door. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get changed, that's all." Tsumiki nodded, and Magire left.

Tsumiki then shifted in his chair, re-looking over the papers on his desk. He then breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god." He then let loose a small chuckle. "An ANBU death will surely keep our funding high."

* * *

**ObliviousIJ: I'm glad you appreciate this story enough to send in a serious review. It makes me feel good.**

**TheBloperM: Indeed! The C-Rank curse shall always strike fast and hard. (I didn't mean for that to sound sexual, I swear!) Also, nice to see you didn't think Mamoru was too Sasuke-ish.**

**HalloweenJesus: Balancing Naruto was certainly the hardest part of the whole thing. I'm realizing as I grow more accustomed to post-Last Naruto that there's basically nothing he can't do. This presents a problem with stakes, that I'll have to constantly deal with... Ah well, I'll figure it out.**

**Tidrio: Holy crap, a non-native English speaker actually reads my fic. Uh, welcome, hope you enjoy your stay, and at least you won't have to wait as long to get these chapters anymore. Hopefully.**

* * *

**Phew, Chapter 7 complete!**

**I probably would have finished this fast, but my keyboard trey fell off, so I had to put my keyboard on my lap, and that just made it uncomfortable to write for long periods of time.**

**Anyway, Chakra natures!**

**Are you surprised by them?**

**Probably not, maybe with the exception of Tori.**

**Originally, Tori was going to be solely Wind, but after a discussion with my friend, I decided to change it up a bit.**

**We've been having discussions about the story, and he's given me plenty of creative feedback, so shoutout to him.**


	8. Eye Spy

"Come on..."

Naruto heard creaking as he led the trek through the desert.

"Almost..."

Another, louder creak drew Naruto's attention to the sound's source.

It was Shira, gripping the same water balloon he had given her a day ago. He noticed she had taken to the double-handed approach, in more frustrated efforts to get the water to actually move.

She was making next to no progress in the whole time the group was walking, but she still continued nonetheless. The other two had completely thrown in the towel at this point, though.

Mamoru was trudging along, silently. He wasn't giving issues to Naruto in the least.

Tori, on the other hand…

_Snore~_

Naruto was carrying her in a piggyback, and she was snoring loudly in his ear because of it.

Of course, Naruto figured that was to be expected.

After all, it _was_ his overzealousness that got him into this situation in the first place.

* * *

"Okay, you three!" Naruto called. "I want you to work on Nature Transformations, ya' know."

Shira raised her hand. "How do we do that, sensei?"

"Simple," Naruto said and grabbed a leaf from a nearby tree. He then stuck the leaf in between his fingers, similar to the paper from before. Less than a second later, the leaf split in two.

"Pfft." Shira snorted a bit, and ran up the tree trunk and grabbed a leaf of her own. "This'll be easy." She then stuck the leaf in between her hand and closed her eyes. A second later, she separated her hands, and…

Nothing.

"What? But I did the right thing..." Shira whined.

Naruto chuckled a little. "It's like I explained before, the Chakra Paper is special, being more in tune with Chakra. You have to focus on what it feels like to use your element, then take that, and use it on the leaf."

Shira raised an eyebrow, and Tori tilted her head. Mamoru just hummed.

"Okay then, I guess I need an example..." Naruto conceded. He then let go of his leaf halves and took out two kunai knives. "Okay, so for Wind, you'd have to think about two halves of your Chakra grinding together." He then smashed the two kunai together, creating some sparks. "Almost like sharpening your kunai."

The trio nodded, then Shira raised her hand again. "What about for the other elements?"

Naruto hummed and brought a hand to his chin. "Well, for Lightning, you need to think of your Chakra as piercing through something." He then threw his kunai, and it thunked into the tree.

Shira nodded, and then sat down with her eyes closed.

"Earth… You need to think of your Chakra as melding into a surface." Naruto then grabbed a smoke bomb and tossed it away. It exploded, and smoke went everywhere. "Imagine that smoke is your Chakra." He then walked towards the smoke and started blowing at it so that it moved towards the ground. "You want to bind it to a rocky surface, and make sure the Chakra doesn't all fly away, ya' know."

Mamoru hummed again, and took a meditative stance, with both hands laying on the ground.

"As for you, Tori, you're in luck, ya know!" Naruto explained.

She tilted her head again. "Why's that sensei?"

"Well..." Naruto used a small Earth Style jutsu, followed by a small Water Style jutsu to create a container of water. "While Wind is one of the hardest elements to learn, Water is one of the easiest. You only need to think of your Chakra as a liquid, and manipulate it as such." He then cupped his hands and took a small handful of water from the mini pond. "Most new learners want to make a container of Chakra for the water, and while that does work, it doesn't allow you to create the water you need."

"So then..." Tori began. "Why do we have this puddle?"

Naruto smiled. "You need to get used to the feeling of water so that you can make your Chakra act like it."

Tori nodded slowly. "Okay, but I don't think we need to do this… I already know how water feels."

"Okay then." Naruto challenged. "Explain it to me."

"Huh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at Tori's exclamation. "Uh, okay, well... It's wet."

He still didn't budge.

"It's like..." Tori tried again. "It's kinda… Fragile?" she offered. "Like, one little ripple can mess with anything near the surface."

Naruto nodded.

"Uh..." Tori sighed. "That's it." She concluded, in a much meeker, quieter voice than usual.

Naruto nodded again and then gave her a soft smile. He affectionately ruffled her hair. "Hey, that's alright. That's why I'm teaching you this." He then gave her a couple pats to the head. "Now, I want you to try and filter Chakra into the water once you get a good enough understanding of it."

"Okay!" Tori chirped and then submerged her hands into the pond.

Immediately, bubbles formed in the water and even carried up into the air. When they popped, little white wisps appeared for but the briefest of seconds.

Tori must not have noticed it though, as she just continued focusing on the water.

'_That's weird...'_ Naruto thought.

"_**Maybe it's something to do with her two elements."**_ Kurama surmised.

'_You mean you don't know either!?'_ Naruto shouted in his mindscape.

The fox shrugged. _**"Hey, it's not like the Old Man gave me all the wisdom. That went to Kokuo."**_ He did his best to sound nonchalant, but Naruto could tell he was a little embarrassed.

'_It's alright. You're still much smarter than most living creatures.'_ Naruto grinned a little.

"_**HEY! DON'T PATRONIZE ME!"**_ With that, Kurama forced Naruto out of his mindscape and even caused him to stumble a little in the real world.

"Sensei?" Tori questioned as another bubble rose from the water. "You okay?"

Naruto nodded absently.

'_What _is _it?'_

* * *

Naruto sighed to himself. Tori had passed out earlier that morning due to his insistence on figuring this out.

He had her try many different things, and the young girl had done them all.

She managed to use Chakra to control one of the bubbles, and even pop it on her own. She had done the same while walking up a tree. From manipulating a glob of water to even controlling the water in the water balloon- much to Shira's dismay- she had managed.

It was during all this that Ino had said something which caught his attention.

"_Her Chakra's weird… it's almost like it refuses to stay in her body..."_

And sure enough, when he had activated Sage Mode, he felt the same thing. Oodles and oodles of Chakra almost fleeing from her body.

Once he noticed that, he told her to take a break, and as soon as she sat down, she fell asleep, likely from Chakra Exhaustion.

While he could have replenished her Chakra for her with his Six Paths Chakra, he decided against it. Doing so wouldn't allow her body to naturally build up better reserves.

That all led to him carrying Tori through the desert, whilst Ino made sure to scout around, Mamoru got used to the environment, and Shira cursed her inability to manipulate the water in the balloon.

"Damn it!" Shira yelled all of a sudden, causing Mamoru to jump slightly. She removed her other hand from the balloon and gestured wildly. "This makes no sense! How the hell can dead last-" she was about to go on a tirade, but all of a sudden, she halted and a splash was heard.

Naruto looked and noticed her hand was now clutching her wrist. Her right hand was shaking and was covered in burns and scratches.

"Ow! W-what the hell..." Shira mumbled to herself, staring strangely at her hand.

Naruto walked over a placed and hand on her shoulder. "Alright everyone," he began. He looked at the sky and noticed that the sun was beginning to hang low. He pulled out a small map. "We're going to find an oasis and stop for the day."

Ino and Mamoru nodded, but Shira gasped. "What!?" She made a showing of spinning her damaged hand, and then clenched it, but released a small whine. "I-I can keep going."

Naruto shook his head. He took off his bag, pulled out a roll of gauze, and kneeled down to begin wrapping it around Shira's hand. He laid Tori and his bag on the ground before saying, "We're still quite a bit away from Suna. We were gonna stop soon anyway, ya' know."

Naruto finished wrapping the gauze with a bright smile, and Shira looked away grumpily. "Fine, let's go..."

"Alright!" Naruto hopped to his feet and began walking with gusto.

The rest of the group followed suit.

* * *

The oasis was finally in sight, and Naruto heard Mamoru mutter a small sigh of relief. It took a little longer than expected to arrive. It was currently late evening, and the sun would be setting pretty soon.

On the way there, Naruto had done some thinking, and when he noticed that Tori was stirring, he grinned.

"Mm..." Tori groaned as she came to. She began looking around drowsily, before noticing that she was on Naruto's back. Looking around shiftily, she slowly relaxed and prepared to go back to sleep before anyone had noticed she woke.

Unfortunately for her, Naruto shook her before she got the chance. "Not a chance, sleepyhead. I have a training exercise for you."

"Huh?" Tori questioned.

"Naruto..." Ino warned.

"Relax, Ino." Naruto lowered himself to let Tori off. She hopped off and stumbled slightly, but managed to catch herself. "It's nothing taxing. I'm not _that_ dumb."

Ino raised an eyebrow at that but then sighed. "All right."

"Great! Okay, so..." He began, as the Genin trio formed up together. "Who wants to be a spy?"

…

"H-huh?" Interestingly enough, it was Mamoru that spoke up. "S-spies?"

Naruto nodded. "That's right! While most people think the thing that defines Ninja is our Chakra, and different Jutsus, it's really not." Naruto paused and pointed at the oasis, which was used as a hub for a merchant outpost. "At first, Ninja existed to hide in the shadows and gather information." He brought his hands together to form his signature cross seal.

A shadow clone poofed into existence next to him. It began speaking for him. "Jutsus were meant to help in this." The clone pointed to himself. "For instance, Shadow Clones' memories return to the original user because they were meant to be scouts and information gatherers."

Shira and Tori nodded, but Mamoru looked hesitant. When he noticed no one was going to speak up, he raised his hand. The Narutos pointed, and Mamoru said, "W-why not teach us Shadow Clones then?"

"Good question, ya know!" The original said, before releasing a small amount of the Nine-Tails' Chakra. The trio became slightly more aware all of a sudden. "I would love to, but the Shadow Clone Jutsu requires more Chakra than any of you have." Naruto showed off his more animalistic features inherent to tapping into Kurama's Chakra. "The only reason I can use so many is because I'm a Jinchuriki."

This time, Tori raised her hand. "Sensei, what's a Jinchuriki?"

Shira next to her hummed. "I've heard stuff about sensei being one, but no one's ever told me what it means."

"Well..." Naruto hesitated slightly. "It's someone who has one of the nine Tailed Beasts sealed inside of them."

Despite himself, Naruto tensed up slightly. Many people were still ignorant about the whole thing. Sure he had proved himself to the Village, but there were still some. Most children had no idea.

Would his students…

"Wow!" Shira exclaimed. "No wonder you're so strong! Those things can destroy mountains!" She then gasped. "Wait, does that mean _you_ can destroy mountains?" She had stars in her eyes and was firing off questions like Sasuke brooded. Nonstop.

Tori and Mamoru were just watching her with amusement. They showed no signs of thinking any worse of Naruto.

Naruto shook his head. _'Of course. __I'm an idiot.'_ He then cleared his throat and stopped Shira at question number eight hundred. "We're getting off track." He said. He then pointed back at the Merchant Outpost. "The point of all this was to say that as a Ninja, you'll be expected to stealthily gather information."

The Genin nodded, and Naruto pointedly ignored Ino when she snorted at the word stealth. "Basically," Ino said. "That means stuff like don't be loud, or don't wear bright orange." She patted Naruto's shoulder. "And not just because it's a fashion disaster."

Naruto brushed her hand away. "So, your assignment here is to head to the outpost and gather information." He then pointed his arm to the Shadow Clone still next to him. The clone used a transformation Jutsu and turned into a regular looking merchant. "My clone will head in and grade you on your performance."

"How will you even notice us, though?" Shira asked.

Naruto snorted. "Oh please. As long as a Jonin is alert, you'll never have a chance."

Shira crossed her arms. "Yeah right! You won't notice me!"

Naruto smirked. "Oh?"

"That's right!" Shira exclaimed, pointing at him. "I'll prove it to you!"

"Alright then." Naruto looked at the three kids in front of him. "You all have twenty minutes to enter the outpost and get into a spot. Use whatever you can, from tools to Jutsu. However, if any of the merchants notice you, you fail."

"Yes, sir!" The three chorused and ran off.

After a moment, the transformed Shadow Clone began walking towards the outpost at a comfortable pace.

"How do you think they'll do?" Ino asked after the clone was out of sight.

Naruto hummed. "Well..." He looked at her, amused. "I'm sure they'll at least be better than I was."

* * *

"Okay Shira, you need a good spot. Don't let Naruto-sensei show you up." Shira spoke to herself, peering across the outpost on a stone building.

Her, Tori, and Mamoru had all split up. Mamoru had told them that they'd be less likely to get noticed if they worked separately, and they had agreed. So right now, she was on her own, doing her best to find a spot she could hide.

Every time she failed to find a spot, she would jump to the next building, hoping no one would see her.

This place was strange, she had concluded. When she thought of an outpost, she imagined tents and baskets. The entire place was made of stone with wooden stands and merchants mingling all around.

It looked more like a small town than an outpost.

'_Suppose that makes it easy, though.'_ she thought to herself as an idea sprang to mind. She began jumping over the buildings until she found the spot she wanted.

It was a closed stand. The little note saying, 'closed,' was hanging from the small overhang in front of it.

Looking around, Shira noted how no one was around at the moment. There was a fairly large building nearby, but other than that, it was quiet.

Confirming this, she ran through the hand signs, biting her lip to prevent a wince from escaping, and transformed into a stand up-sign next to the counter. _'Now I'll just wait here, and people will talk.'_ She snickered silently.

After half an hour though, she began rethinking her ingenious plot.

No one had gotten near her! Let alone talk!

Sure, a few people walked out of the large building near her, but they turned the other way.

'_WHAT GIVES!?'_ She internally raged and was about to give up and move somewhere else, until soft footsteps echoed in her ears.

She immediately stopped thinking and sat as perfectly still as she could.

"Huh?" Came a soft voice. An older looking gentleman walked up to the sign. "Hm." He studiously stared at the sign for almost a full minute.

Shira was sweating buckets.

Eventually, that man came to a conclusion. "I see, it's supposed to be advertising jewelry." He reached into his bag and pulled out an ink brush. "Whoever wrote this has awful handwriting..." He muttered as he began scribbling on the sign.

* * *

Tori was currently looking for a big group of people.

While she would love to go back to sleep right now, she couldn't. She figured that she might as well just get some info and get back to sensei as fast as she could so she could sleep.

It took some effort, but after jumping around the place for a while, she finally found a group of merchants near a busy stand. They were completely absorbed in their conversation, so she felt she had an easy opening.

Without hesitation, Tori jumped next to the stand and turned into a purple hyacinth. One merchant who was wearing glasses looked at her strangely.

'_Did he notice!?'_ Tori panicked slightly but calmed down when he turned back to his friends.

"Quite an exotic plant, isn't it?" He asked.

A blond merchant looked and nodded. "Yeah, I heard those things are found in the northern parts of the Land of Fire."

"Heh." A scraggly merchant chuckled. "That thing must sell for a pretty penny then, all the way out here."

The glasses-wearing one hummed. "Maybe I should buy it and give it to my girlfriend."

"Careful." The scraggly one warned. "You never know what those things mean."

"Huh?" The blond one pulled out a book from his bag. "If you want, we could just look for it in here." He handed the man with glasses the book.

"Hey, I didn't know you had this." He said as he looked through this.

"Well, I am a flower peddler. This sort of thing is important." He gloated. "Like for instance, if you try to sell a woman a geranium as a romantic flower, they'd never buy it if they know the meaning. Instead, you are more likely to get sales like that for gardenias or heliotropes."

Both of the other merchants were listening attentively. "So..." the scraggly one began. "If I want to tell someone..."

Tori sighed to herself as the men gathered near her. _'I think I'm gonna be here a while...'_

* * *

Mamoru had a solid plan from the start.

The first step was to find a fruit stand.

...Which turned out to be a whole lot more difficult than he'd assumed.

Not because he couldn't find a fruit stand. Of course, he could find one. The problem was all the people around.

'_Okay, Mamoru. You can do it. Just find your opening, and no one will even notice you. Don't worry. You can do it...'_ He held his hand to his beating heart, and released a shaky breath.

He repeated those words in his head over and over, almost like a mantra, until at one point, the woman attending the stand had left. No one was buying anything, and the only one watching the wares was a small cute dog.

Noticing this, Mamoru sprang into action. He jumped from his perch, landing in front of the stand, transformed into an orange.

Someone walking by noticed the orange on the ground and went to pick it up. When he did, the dog barked. Quickly, the woman who was attending the stand ran back to her post. "Hello! Do you want that orange, sir?"

"Oh." He shook his head. "No thanks, I just noticed it had fallen."

The woman nodded and took it from him. "Okay, thanks for picking it up!"

The man nodded, and then went on his way. The woman sighed and began petting her dog. "Nothing's been selling..." She muttered.

The dog whined and nuzzled her.

"It's all 'cause of this damn cult! If they weren't sending fake merchants to kidnap people, I'd be selling out!" She pumped her fists in the air.

The dog yipped next to her.

The woman then nodded. "You're right, maybe in the next town we'll sell more!"

At that exclamation, a curious monkey waddled over close to the stand. It began licking its lips whilst looking at the oranges. Specifically, the Mamoru orange.

The woman didn't notice the monkey, too absorbed in talking. "So, we should probably pack up and leave soon. Probably to the Land of Earth next..."

All of a sudden, the dog barked fiercely, as the monkey grabbed Mamoru and ran away. "What the..." The woman stood up, and called out, "Someone stop that monkey!"

"Relax." Some random guy walked up to her with a wad of Ryo in hand. "He's mine, so I'll pay for it."

"Oh..." The woman sat down. "Okay... then...?"

* * *

"So..." Naruto began. "Let's see how you all did." He walked over to a sulking Shira, who had the words, 'Jewelry Stand' written on her face, the J and S on each of her eyelids. "Shira, you had the right idea, but you set up in a bad location, and you also used your own handwriting for the sign." Naruto shook his head. "Other than that, did you get any information?"

She humphed and crossed her arms.

Naruto chuckled and then walked in front of Tori. Her eyes seemed like they were glazed over. "Tori, you did alright, but you stuck out too much." He then raised an eyebrow. "Did you get any information?"

"Flowers..." Tori muttered.

Naruto blinked.

Tori's eyes remained unfocused.

"Ooookay..." Naruto then walked over to Mamoru, hand on his heart and monkey on his lap. "Mamoru, I'd say you did the best. However, you didn't plan for anything unexpected, and got carried off by a monkey." Mamoru hung his head. "Did you get any information?"

Mamoru nodded slowly. "Th-the woman said something about a cult kidnapping people, and how she's going to head to the Land of Earth next."

"Wonderful!" Naruto exclaimed, before shaking his head again. "Well, not about that whole cult thing, but you gather good information." He ruffled Mamoru's hair.

"Okay then." Naruto looked at the sky and noted how dark it was. "I hope you all can learn from your mistakes here. We're going to head into the outpost, and book a room for all of us, ya know!" He stood up.

"Sensei, what about this monkey?" Mamoru asked, holding the animal in his hands.

"Just find the guy and ask if it's his monkey." Naruto then looked at Shira. "Shira, clean your face and get Tori moving. We're gonna be turning in early tonight!"

"Huh? Why?" Shira asked.

"Because, tomorrow, we get to Suna, ya' know!"

* * *

**Reviews:**

**Oblivious IJ: That is an interesting question isn't it? Hm... I wonder...**

**Hospitaller1080: Happy to see you enjoy the story up til now! It's nice seeing reactions all the way up.**

* * *

**GUESS WHO!**

**THAT'S RIGHT, I'M BACK!**

**Oh my God, this chapter fought and fought.**

**I meant to get this out much much quicker, but uh... Well, a whole lot happened.**

**I went on a small vacation, my computer monitor broke, blah blah blah.**

**I didn't mean to leave you guys high and dry, so, sorry 'bout that.**

**On to some better news though, I officially have a beta for this story! Remember that friend I talked about before? Well, he decided to become the official beta, and he's the absolute best.**

**Here's what he has to say; "****Yo! I'm HyperNin's new editor. I go by SofluwYerg on this website. I've done a lot of talking with him about where this fic is gonna go, and with luck, you guys'll be in for a wild ride!"**

**So, yeah. Yerg is the beta for this story, and 90% of this chapter is because of our talks together.**

**Trust me; if he wasn't here, this chapter probably wouldn't have come out until like, next month.**

**Anyway, that's enough rambling. I'll see you guys next time!**


	9. Arrival

"Okay..."

Mamoru looked at the water balloon in his hand. While he wasn't trying as religiously as Shira, it was still bugging him that Tori had been the first out of the three to get the water moving.

He closed his eyes, and slowly built the Chakra up in his hand.

Slowly, he began leaking the energy through the surface of the balloon. That part was more difficult than he first thought it would be.

He needed to constantly change the output of Chakra in order to get it into the water. Too much and it would affect the balloon. Too little, and it would all dissipate into the water.

When he asked why that happened, Naruto-sensei had told him something about the energy of nature or something. Mamoru couldn't make too much sense of it.

Once the water was suitably filled, at least, once he felt like it was, he could try moving it around.

Of course, as usual, that didn't happen. The water shifted a little, but other than that, nothing happened.

Mamoru sighed, and let his arm fall limp.

"Still having trouble there?" Naruto sidled up next to him.

Mamoru nodded, kicking some sand. "I just don't get it. I feel like I should know the right amount of Chakra to use, but I keep getting it wrong."

Naruto nodded and hummed. After a moment, he said, "Well, this is just a substitute for learning water walking. It'll be much easier to do it once we have an actual body of water."

Mamoru nodded and was about to say as much until Shira butted in. "No way!"

Everyone looked at her. Her hand was still a shaking mess, and the fresh bandages contrasted against the colorful balloon she was holding. "Shira." Naruto began. "You should seriously take a-"

"No!" Shira cut him off and glared at the water balloon. "Dead last could do it, so I can too!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Mamoru noticed Tori frown. When he turned his head to her though, she had that same goofy smile she usually did.

'_Maybe I should...'_

Mamoru looked back up at Naruto and saw that he was glancing at Tori. However, he decided to chide Shira more, and get her to drop the balloon.

He noticed Ino looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

Mamoru averted his gaze and tried to swallow the growing lump in his throat. After a moment, he walked up to Tori. "H-hey."

Her eyes widened slightly. "Uh, hi."

"S-so uh..." It was at that moment, he realized. He didn't even think about what he was going to say before walking over there. _'__Crap! Say something!'_ "So, what do you think of Shira?"

"Huh?"

'_Huh?'_ Mamoru mentally facepalmed. It was too late to take it back now, though. "Y-yeah, like, what are your thoughts on her now?"

Tori glanced downwards, her face darkening slightly. "Well, I like her… I just don't think she's a fan of me..."

"What-" Mamoru began asking what she meant, but he cut himself off. It _was_ rather obvious. "I-I see what you mean."

Tori looked back up at him, goofy smile back in place. "What about you?"

Mamoru looked away, a little embarrassed. "W-well, she's a-alright."

Tori tilted her head.

"I-I don't hate her. She's loud, though..." He shook his head, and then raised his hand, the one holding the water balloon. "A-anyway, I also wanted to know. How did you move the water around?"

Tori grabbed the balloon from his hand and closed her eyes. "Well, I dunno… I just put my Chakra in, told it to move, and it did."

Mamoru gave her a flat stare. _'Total airhead...'_ He took the balloon back and gave her a little smile. "I-I suppose I'll just have to keep at it."

Tori nodded vigorously, saying, "Yeah, you can do it!"

Mamoru nodded and moved to catch up with Naruto, who seemed to have finished his talk with Shira. When he did, he noticed his sensei staring at something. Looking off into the distance, he saw it too.

A huge stone structure.

It was so big, it looked almost as if it was weighing the desert itself down.

If he had to describe it, he would say it looked almost like the bottom half of a mountain, with a massive crevice splitting it in two.

"What is that?" He asked his sensei.

"That..." He paused for dramatic effect. He then boisterously pointed forward. "Is Suna! It's our destination, ya' know!"

"About time!" Shira yelled from behind the pair, trying to fan herself with her good hand.

"Does that mean we can stop walking…?" Tori muttered pathetically.

"Nope!" Naruto cheerily replied. He then picked up the pace. "In fact, we should all race there!"

"Huuuuh…?" Tori slouched over. "Why?"

"Training!" Naruto called back, already quite a bit ahead of them.

"You're on!" Shira screamed as she took off. Ino next to her giggled a little before running after the rapidly fading Naruto herself.

Mamoru shook his head with a sigh. He thought about encouraging Tori, but she glumly ran before he made up his mind. Taking her cue, he started sprinting as well.

'_It's way too hot to be doing this...'_ He thought to himself.

* * *

"Welcome!" The Chunin standing at the front of the village bowed deeply. "You've arrived at Sunagakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Sand." Without warning, he sped over and shook Naruto's hand. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance!"

"Uh..." Naruto rubbed the back of his head awkwardly for a second before laughing and shaking back. "Likewise, ya' know!"

Shira smothered a snicker.

The Chunin nodded and then walked back to his post. He cleared his throat, and then in a deep voice said, "Now, state your business."

Naruto looked over at Ino and nodded. She nodded back and then presented the man the mission scroll.

He took it, and read it over. "You may proceed." He said, handing the scroll back to the blond.

Ino silently bowed, and then started leading the group through the crevice.

The familiar feeling of curiosity began making itself know in the back of Shira's mind, and seeing as no one else was talking, she decided to ask. "Hey, sensei?"

"Yeah?" Naruto shifted his attention to her.

"We found this village pretty easily. How come it's a _Hidden_ Village?" While she knew Konoha wasn't exactly hidden, it was still covered by a dense forest. She couldn't find a reason some Jonin couldn't just travel the desert the same way they just did.

"Well, it's quite simple." Naruto began, shifting to his lecture voice. "The name, Hidden Village, is a bit of a misnomer. None of the villages are exactly hard to find. Their locations are all public knowledge." By this point, Tori and Mamoru had begun listening in. "The locations are actually chosen based on how easy it is to defend them."

"What do you mean, sensei?" Tori asked.

"Well." He gestured back to the desert they just came from. "Suna is surrounded by desert, and is also the furthest away from any of the other Major Villages."

"B-but couldn't enemy ninja just go the same way we did?" Mamoru decided to speak up.

Naruto shook his head. "Not exactly. See, while the traveling path is relatively easy to traverse for a desert, it's also incredibly open. An enemy shinobi could see you coming from a mile away."

Shira nodded slowly before a thought occurred to her. "Couldn't an Iwa shinobi just travel underground?"

Naruto shrugged. "Well, technically, yes. But, the Kazekage has the ability to control the sand itself. An enemy _could_ approach from underground, but..."

Naruto trailed off, allowing the Genin to imagine it themselves. Shira paled when the image appeared in her mind.

Naruto, noticing this, put his hand on Shira's head, and ruffled her hair. "Don't worry. You guys won't ever have to worry about that."

Shira nodded absently. "Is that why the entrance to the village was so undefended?" She eventually worked up the nerve to ask.

At that, Naruto began laughing.

Shira's cheeks puffed up in anger. "Wh-what's so funny?"

"Sorry, sorry." Naruto raised his hands amicably. "I'm just surprised you didn't notice."

Ino decided to speak up in defense of the Genin. "It makes sense. They're not supposed to be noticed."

"What are you guys talking about?" Tori asked.

Ino cleared her throat. "At the entrance to the village, you saw how there was only a handful of ninja along the walls?" They nodded. "Well, all around the entrance were around fifty more ninjas, all hiding in the sand."

"W-wait a second," Mamoru spoke up. "If you guys could notice them, c-couldn't any Jonin?"

Ino shook her head. "I was only able to notice them because I'm a sensory type." She then slung an arm over Naruto's shoulder. "And blondie here has his little guest to do the sensing for him."

"You're blond too..." Naruto muttered, before breaking out of her grasp. "Anyway, while this talk has been nice, I'd like to introduce you all to Sunagakure!" He dramatically turned around, and that's when Shira noticed that they had reached the end of the crevice.

"Wow..." Tori whispered. Shira couldn't help but agree.

The main building style wasn't different from the outpost they had stopped at yesterday, but what really impressed them was scale.

It was one thing to know that a village the same size theirs in a desert existed, it was something else to see it.

Whereas Konoha was majorly wood, with dirt roads connecting the major buildings to each other, Suna was mostly made of clay and stone. The sand roads were also laid out differently to Konoha.

In Konoha, all the roads were placed as they were needed, often snaking in and out of other major roads and alleys. Suna, on the other hand, had a very meticulous looking layout. In the center of the village was the Kazekage Mansion, and the major roads all traveled in a straight line outwards. All other roads were small paths connecting the four major intersecting roads.

"It looks..." Shira began, looking for the right word. "Rigid." She eventually decided.

Naruto nodded. "It makes sense. Suna was created by force, and the first Kazekage was very strict." He looked over the whole village. "In fact, he was so strict that all Kazekage ever since has been a direct descendant of him. The political structure of Suna is almost like a kingdom."

Shira looked up at him in shock. "What, really!? But that's so-" She was going to say backwards, but Naruto cut her off with a hand to her shoulder.

"Each village has its own way." He explained. "If we're to maintain peace, we have to accept that."

"But..." Shira began, looking at her feet. "Wouldn't it make people happier to have a say, like in Konoha?"

Naruto chuckled. "Perhaps, or maybe they're happier not having the responsibility. You never know."

Shira looked back up at the village proper.

In the streets were people. Citizens of Suna, living their lives, talking with friends, eating, celebrating, fighting, crying, exploring, playing… Living.

"Maybe." Shira eventually mumbled.

Naruto ruffled her hair again and then pointed to the middle of the village. "Next stop, Kazekage Mansion, ya' know!"

* * *

The Genin had noticed something.

Their sensei was _popular._

Not popular in the way the Hokage was.

No, he was like royalty.

As they walked through the streets of Suna, people would start pointing, whispering, even giggling. They waved and would freak out when Naruto waved back.

It was… sort of freaky.

Sure, in Konoha, he was well known and treated like the hero he was, but it was on a whole other level here.

It got even weirder when they reached the mansion.

"Oh my goodness!" A plain-looking young man stood from his seat as soon as Team 7 stepped in. "Is it possible?" He muttered to himself, clambering over his desk and then walking up to Naruto. "Are you really the Orange Army, Naruto Uzumaki!?"

Naruto chuckled, a slight blush reaching his cheeks. "In the flesh!"

"Wow!" The man immediately got on his knees and shook Naruto's hand. "It's such an honor to meet you, Uzumaki-san!" He gasped and then ran over to his seat. He started going through a bag and pulled out an orange notebook with the number 2 two on it. He then ran back over to Naruto and practically shoved it in his face. "PLEASE SIGN THIS!"

Naruto winked, and said, "sure thing!" He noticed Ino whispering something to his students, but ignored it.

He only glared at them when they had burst out laughing.

With a flourish, Naruto finished the Uzumaki swirl on his signature and handed the notebook back to the receptionist.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" The man bowed up and down repeatedly, before running back to his bag and carefully lowering the notebook in.

He acted like he was carrying a baby.

After he finally closed his bag back up, he sat down at his chair calmly. He nodded to them, shifting over to a professional facade. "Greetings. Welcome to the Kazekage Manor. State your business."

Naruto decided to just walk up to the counter as if nothing had happened, and Ino joined him. The Genin were still stunned though.

Ino cleared her throat as she pulled out her mission scroll.

As she handed the scroll to the young man, a voice rumbled in Naruto's mind. _**'Naruto.'**_

'_What's up, Kurama?'_

Inside Naruto's mindscape, Kurama was actually sitting up for once, instead of just laying about like the lazy fuzzball he was. _**'Do you feel that?'**_

'_Huh?'_Naruto tried to reach out with his Chakra, but he couldn't feel that anything was amiss. He told Kurama as such.

'_**Hm...**_' The fox grumbled and laid back down.

Naruto waited, but Kurama didn't say anything more. After almost a full minute, Naruto decided to leave. _'Well, if you figure it out, let me know.'_

'_**Mm.'**_ Kurama just closed his eyes.

"Follow me." Naruto heard as soon as he came back to reality. The receptionist stood from his set and began walking. Naruto, used to this kind of situation, followed.

After a few moments of silent walking, the man stopped at a door and knocked. A second later, a raspy voice called out, "Come in."

A soon as Naruto heard it, a wide grin sprouted on his face.

The door opened, and bright blue eyes met tired green ones.

"Gaara!" Naruto called out as he ran into the room.

"Uzumaki?" The redhead questioned, but still stood up and shook his hand nonetheless.

"It's great to see you again, ya' know!" Naruto bounced on his feet.

Gaara nodded, putting his Kazekage hat on his desk. "Likewise." He then looked past Naruto and saw the young trio. "And these are your Genin, I presume?"

Naruto nodded, putting his hand on Shira's head. "This is Shira Ai." She jumped a little before doing a curt bow. He then put his hand on Tori's head. "Tori Ushinawa." She followed Shira's example and did a bow, this one being slightly looser than Shira's. "And Mamoru Tomi." He did a bow as well, this one far more rigid than Shira's or Tori's.

Naruto then turned around to look at the kids. "Kiddos, this is an old friend of mine. Gaara, the Kazekage."

"Wait wait wait..." Shira interrupted, and looked between her sensei and the Kazekage. "You're _friends_ with him? And..." She studied Gaara's face. His eyes were sunken, his frame was thin, and he was hunched over. It looked like he couldn't lift a rock, let alone run a village. "_This guy's _the Kazekage?"

"Shira!" Mamoru hissed at her.

Gaara however just laughed. He turned to Naruto, and said, "I see at least one of them follows your example."

"Hey!" Naruto complained half-heartedly.

"Kazekage-san," Ino spoke up, cutting off any further conversation.

Gaara looked at her for a second, before nodding. He signaled to the ANBU, and a second later they brought in a man in a black bodysuit and purple face-paint. "Yamanaka-san, I want you to go with Kankuro."

Ino nodded and silently left the room with Kankuro in tow. "Talk with ya' later, Naruto!" Kankuro said before finally closing the door.

A second later, Gaara sighed. "Uzumaki." He began carefully before he glanced towards the Genin trio.

Naruto nodded. He then turned around and clapped his hands lightly. "Alright kiddos, Gaara and I gotta talk real quick, so I'm gonna need y'all to leave for a little bit, ya' know."

"Huh?" Shira rounded on him with a small glare. "Whatever you gotta talk about, we can be here too!" She then turned to look at her fellow students. "Right?"

Unfortunately for her, they didn't take her side. Mamoru was shaking his head, and Tori just seemed distracted. "Wha- hey, guys!"

Naruto laughed and started gently pushing her out the door. "Don't worry, it won't take long."

Shira grumbled a bit, but eventually gave in. She opened the door and left the room with her arms crossed. Tori and Mamoru followed her without any complaints.

As the door closed, Gaara laughed again. "She really is a lot like you."

"Yeah, I know..." Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, before putting on a serious face. "So anyway, I assume what you want to talk about is why you requested me?"

Gaara nodded and then gestured to a chair next to his desk. "Take a seat."

Naruto did as requested.

Gaara ruffled through his desk for a while, before finally pulling out a single piece of paper.

"What's this?" Naruto asked, grabbing it from his hand. It looked to him like a topographical map, with a circled area and coordinates.

"The last known location of Shukaku," Gaara replied solemnly.

Naruto immediately became alert. "Something happened to Shukaku!?"

Gaara just nodded.

'_**That explains the feeling I got.'**_ Kurama noted.

"So..." Naruto smiled a little. "You want me to investigate this, huh?"

Gaara nodded once more. "I would do it myself, but-"

"I get it." Naruto cut him off. "You're a Kage, you have stuff to do." With that, Naruto stood up.

"Wait, where are you going?" Gaara asked him as he began walking to the door.

Naruto turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "To investigate?"

Gaara was silent for a moment, before shaking his head. "That's just like you. I was going to ask you to investigate later since you just arrived."

"Nah." Naruto waved him off. "Better to do it now, ya' know." He then opened the door and waved the Genin back in.

"That was quicker than I thought," Shira said.

"Told ya'!" Naruto replied, before pointing at Gaara. "Alright kids, I have something I gotta do real quick, so I'll leave you in Gaara's capable hands."

At this, Gaara's eyes widened. "W-wait-"

"See ya' later!" Naruto ignored Gaara and left with a quick wave.

An awkward silence hung over the room after the door closed.

No one was sure exactly what to say.

After a couple of minutes, Shira couldn't take it anymore. She was just so bored!

She reached into her bag and pulled out the water balloon again.

"Uh, Shira..." Tori began.

Shira cut her off with a, "Can it, dead last."

"Eep!" Tori hid behind her hair. Mamoru silently patted her on the back.

Gaara frowned at this but was intrigued all the same. "What's this?"

"Hm?" Shira looked up at him and noticed he was looking at the balloon. "Oh, this is just an exercise sensei wants us to do. We have to move the water in the balloon around in a circle."

Gaara raised an invisible eyebrow. "That's not an exercise I've ever heard of."

"Eh." Shira shrugged. "He said it was a substitute for water walking."

"You know..." Gaara stood up and looked out his window. "We _do_ have bodies of water our Genin train on. If you'd like, I can point you in the direction of them."

Mamoru and Tori looked intrigued, and Tori had opened her mouth to accept, but she was interrupted by Shira saying, "Nope!"

Gaara remained silent, encouraging her to continue.

"It's just..." Shira glanced at Tori. "I have to do it this way first."

Gaara remained silent again, but this time, for a different reason. _'Am I feeling… Chakra?'_

Shira just continued though. "If I don't, it's almost like I'm failing at something simple, you know?"

Gaara nodded absently, not even listening to her by this point. _'I have a really bad feeling.'_

"So..." Shira continued. "I appreciate the offer, but-" She cut herself off as Gaara stood from his seat. "Kazekage-san?"

Gaara frantically searched around his desk, until he noticed something.

Just on the underside of the body of the desk was…

'_Is that… a Paper Bomb-'_

That was the last thought Gaara had before an explosion ripped through the office.

* * *

**Reviews:**

**Guest: Yes, it's true that Uzumakis have a ton of natural stamina and Chakra, but Naruto has so much more than even the usual Uzumaki would because of the Nine-Tails.**

**HalloweenJesus****:**** Thanks! I always try my hardest to deliver (which is probably why every chapter takes so long...)**

* * *

**Thanks again to SofluwYerg for betaing this chapter.**

* * *

**DUN DUN DUUUUUUNNNNN.**

**Have I done a proper cliffhanger yet? If not, then this is the first, and what a cliffhanger it is.**

**We're finally moving into the meat of the first arc. Not to give too much away, but almost everything that's happened so far has just been set up.**

**To prevent myself from giving away too much else, I'm gonna end this AN here.**

**See ya next chapter!**


	10. Captured

A massive explosion echoed out across the streets.

Screams of terror and shock echoed all around.

Shira looked around, momentarily confused. '_This… isn't right.'_ The buildings around her were wood, the streets were dirt, and there wasn't that night-time chill she came to associate with the desert.

Glancing behind her, she saw a familiar with six stone faces on it. _'Why am I in Konoha? Wasn't I...'_ She felt… wrong. She couldn't remember what she was doing before this, but she knew this wasn't right.

"How could we let this happen!?" Someone, an eerily familiar someone shouted from the ground. She recognized the round face and the brown hair, and something about the emerald necklace they wore stuck in Shira's mind, but she just couldn't place it.

As she pondered, another voice asked, "What do we do?" This voice came from another familiar person. This time, they were lying in a pool of blood, and their green headband was shredded next to them.

She felt compelled to immediately rise up and shout words of encouragement, but for some reason, her legs were shaking. "Wha-what is..."

"Shira!" The necklace wearing one screamed all of a sudden.

Or, at least, that's what Shira thought. However, when she looked, she noticed that that person was laying down, completely, _unnaturally_ still. "Y-you..."

"Get her up, quick!" The other voice yelled, but once again, the actual body she assumed the voice was from was unnervingly bloody and still.

A grunt of frustration echoed, clearly sounding like the first person. "Okay, I didn't want to do this..."

All of a sudden, a burst of pain flew through Shira's arm.

* * *

"Gah!" Shira awoke with a start.

"Oh, thank God..." A voice said a little far off.

Unfortunately, when she turned her head to get a look at the person, she realized that it was almost pitch black. She did, however, recognize the voice. "Mamoru, where are we?"

"The Kazekage Office." He replied succinctly. "I think..."

When she made a sound of confusion, Tori, next to her, filled her in. "It's weird. Kazekage-san got distracted, and when you went up to check on him, he pushed you back, and then we got here."

"Not to mention." Mamoru continued for her, arriving to kneel next to Shira. "Not even a second later, it sounded like there was an explosion."

"What!?" Shira immediately hopped to her feet in a panic, knocking over Tori in the process. "How long was I out for!?"

Tori got up to stand as well, seemingly ignoring the fact she got knocked over. "Only a couple seconds at most."

"Then the explosion just happened?" She asked. _'Just like the dream...'_

Mamoru nodded and said, "yeah."

"What are we waiting for, then!?" Shira frantically looked around. "We have to get out of here and help the Kazekage!" She immediately tried to walk over to the side of the area, but all of a sudden, she tripped. "Huh?" She looked down uselessly, not able to see anything due to the lack of light.

Instead, she focused on the feeling. Her shaking legs, her sweating palms, her beating heart.

She was… _terrified._

An image of a masked woman and a bandaged Mamoru sprang to mind, but she quickly stuffed it back down.

Then, she shakily got to her feet. She glared at the wall in front of her as if challenging it. Suddenly, something started crumbling, and light started shining through the supposed sturdy wall. Seeing that as her chance, she charged.

She expected at least a little resistance, but instead, she ended up flying right on through it and falling face-first onto the sand beneath her. _'Wait… sand?'_ She looked around.

The first thing she noticed was the massive hole where there once was a window. Not only that, but there was rubble strewn about and the ceiling had a few holes in it as well. Remnants of chairs and shelves could be seen pressed against the walls that were still intact, but the Kazekage's desk was nowhere to be found.

"I'd be more careful if I were you." A raspy voice said next to her all of a sudden. "You don't want to be cut by the broken glass."

"Kazekage-sama!" Shira immediately hopped back to her feet once more and almost ran over to him. "Are you hurt at all, do you need anything?"

Gaara smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll be fine." Shira noticed that some of his clothes were singed, and there was this weird crack on his hand. "I just want to know if you three were all okay."

"Oh! Uh..." Shira through her observation out the window, and looked back at where she appeared from.

It was a dome of sand that was slowly crumbling away, with a trail of sand moving into a small container on Gaara's hip.

As the dome finished crumbling, Shira jumped slightly when she noticed both Tori and Mamoru looking at her strangely. She quickly turned back to Gaara and said, "Yeah, of course, we're fine!"

The skeptical look on his face told the whole story. Despite that though, he held out his hand.

Shira, confused, held out her hand. A second later, a water balloon plopped into it. "What?"

"You dropped it," Gaara explained.

A soft footstep was heard before she got the chance to respond, and she whipped her head around so fast that it hurt.

Mamoru flinched as her eyes landed on him. "Sh-Shira..." He eventually voiced. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah!" She smiled brightly, clamping a hand on her leg to stop it shaking.

"Shira..." Mamoru moved to put a hand on her shoulder but was cut off by an intense feeling of malice and a muffled scream.

In less than a second, a blast of sand moved towards where the dome was.

Unfortunately, it missed and crashed into the wall.

"Careful, Kazekage-dono." A low voice practically whispered. All eyes moved towards the blown-out wall.

Shira gasped, and Mamoru grunted in frustration.

Gaara just glared dangerously.

Standing just in front of the hole, looking ready to jump out at a moment's notice, was a muscular man with a Suna ANBU uniform.

In his arms was Tori.

"Now, I'm going to present a simple question." The man intoned, a kunai appearing in his hand almost instantaneously. "Your life, or hers?"

Tori immediately stopped flailing, instead focusing only on the sharp instrument now pressed against her neck.

Time seemed to move slower, almost like it needed to wade through the impenetrable wall of tension in the room.

The ANBU grew impatient and started slowly pushing the knife into Tori's neck, causing her to whimper.

"Stop!" Gaara bellowed as the blood began soaking her necklace.

The man didn't visibly react. The only thing he did was stop moving the weapon.

Gaara hung his head. He had no way out of this he could think of. If he tried a Jutsu, the attacker could simply slice Tori's throat before he could separate them. Personal experience told him that talking was out of the question in this scenario, and considering no one had run in to check on him yet, he figured that the attacker must have somehow cut off access between him and the rest of the village.

It was useless.

Beyond that, even if he were to let himself die, he doubted that the attacker would simply let the Genin go.

The pragmatic choice would be to let Ushinawa die and save the other two.

Naruto would never forgive him if he did that, though.

"Alright..." Gaara eventually said. "As long as you let these children live." The glint in the other man's eyes told him everything he needed to know.

He just hoped these kids were smart enough to get away.

"No!" Shira screamed next to him. She was shaking like a leaf and her eyes were fixated on the bright contrasting colors on Tori's necklace. Bright shining green cruelly smothered by dark crimson. "Y-you let her go!" The shrill cry sounded more like a plea.

"Kazekage-dono, please shut her up." His grip tightened, and Tori protested. "I'm not a fan of children."

"Ai-san..." Gaara glanced at her sadly.

She wasn't expecting the sincerity emanating from Gaara's voice. It caught her so off guard, she ended up turning her head away, instead looking at Mamoru.

The boy was just standing there with wide eyes. His mouth was open slightly, and his pupils were unfocused. He looked like he was in a trance.

She had no idea what to do. She had no plan. She had no power. She had no one else to rely on. She had no clue how to even pop a stupid balloon!

She wasn't Naruto-sensei, who could blow up a mountain without trying. She wasn't Rokudaime-sama, who could cut a lightning bolt in two. She wasn't Mamoru, who survived that encounter with those cloaked people. She wasn't even Tori, who had two Chakra Natures, and a knack for Chakra exercises. She was just a girl who put on a brave face and blustered her way to the top. In a situation like this, with someone from the ANBU threatening the life of her teammate, she was useless.

"_You know, I wasn't always this strong." _She remembered Naruto saying once. It was on a relatively slow day when he had taken them all out to eat after they had mastered Tree Walking.

"_Why do you bring that up, sensei?" Shira asked._

_Naruto reminisced, looking at the wall. "Back when I was your age, I had to fight against one of the Seven Ninja Swordsman before I ever heard of Tree Walking."_

"_Wow! How did you win?" Tori exclaimed leaning forwards and holding her head up with her hands._

"_I transformed myself into a Windmill Shuriken and my teammate and I tricked him." He explained before __leisurely sipping his ramen._

_Mamoru skeptically raised an eyebrow. Shira, following the same line of questioning he assuredly was, ask__ed__, "You tricked a _Jonin_?"_

_Naruto just nodded, before straightening his posture. "I want you three to remember this. Most Jonin will underestimate you."_

Shira looked down at the water balloon.

By this point, the ANBU had shifted his attention away from her, and back onto Gaara.

"_The best thing when you lack power is to be tricky."_ That's what Naruto-sensei had told them. _"Lightning nature is good for fast movement, and it's also the most precise."_

'_Tricky, fast, and precise.'_ Shira thought to herself. She didn't know when it happened, but she stopped shaking. While her heart was still beating and her palms were still sweating, it was no longer due to fear.

Instead, it was from the pure adrenaline coursing through her veins!

"HEY!" Shira screamed at the ANBU.

He groaned and did his best to ignore her. "Kazekage-dono-"

"I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Shira roared. Tori, Mamoru, and Gaara all looked at her in a panic.

The man just scoffed frustratedly. "Listen, child. If you don't quiet down right now, the girl will die."

Shira said nothing at first, instead choosing to give the man the fiercest glare she could. Silently though, she was building up Lightning Style Chakra inside the balloon. She wasn't exactly sure what would happen, but she was sure it would be distraction enough for the Kazekage to get Tori out of there.

After a second, Shira began commanding the Chakra to move.

There was a second of jubilation when she realized the water inside was moving as well, but that was smothered by the sight of Tori's blood.

"I'm not going to let you..." She muttered as she took a step forward.

The man stared impassively.

Shira reeled back, and then threw the water balloon with all her might, inciting the Lightning Chakra to move yet faster and even more sporadically. "HURT MY FRIEND!"

The ANBU just watched as the balloon got closer and closer. _'Like a little balloon is going to do anything. Does that child think something like that could get me to release my bargaining chip?'_ The man just laughed to himself.

Suddenly, as if spurred by the man's thoughts, the balloon began contorting and almost pulsing. Its surface stretched and pulled on itself until suddenly, it popped!

All of the Genin stared at the now free water with wide eyes.

'_IT POPPED!'_ Shira cheered in her mind. If it were any other situation, she probably would have screamed aloud, but as it was, she decided to act as if it was always planned.

The man just looked at the water unimpressed, not even fussed in the slightest. If the kid thought that just _water_ could hurt him, she was beyond hopeless.

He opened his mouth to say as much, but right when the water touched his skin, two guttural screams echoed out.

The water that was in the balloon wasn't just water. It was _electrified_ water.

So, right when the liquid touched him, a massive amount of electricity entered his body, dulling his nerves and senses to the point where his grip on his kunai loosened. Unfortunately, because he was gripping Tori, she also got caught in the attack.

Gaara, surprised and impressed in equal measures, immediately pounced upon this opportunity, and sent his sand forward to separate the attacker and Tori, and then crush him.

Hands made completely of sand gripped onto them.

The one holding Tori gently set her down next to Shira and Mamoru, while the other completely bound the ANBU inside it.

Gaara walked up to the trapped ANBU with a dark glare set upon him. "Will you tell me who hired you, or would you rather be crushed?"

The ANBU just glared defiantly.

"Very well..." Gaara turned to the Genin. "You should all look away."

They nodded and did as he suggested.

For as long as she lived, Shira doubted she would ever get the sickening crunch that followed out of her head.

Shaking, she turned her head back to where the man was.

In his place was a crimson blob of sand.

She felt nauseous.

Mamoru just seemed stunned.

"Godaime-sama!" Multiple Suna ANBU burst into the destroyed office all at once. "Are you alright?"

Gaara nodded. "It was another assassin."

The ANBU hummed. "This is the most damage one of them has done yet. Somehow, no one noticed until just now. We assume it was a Genjutsu."

Gaara closed his eyes for a second before shaking his head. "We'll talk about this more later. For now, get these kids to a room to rest."

The ANBU looked at them as if he hadn't noticed they were there before saluting and lifting Tori up gently.

"H-hey!" Shira yelled at him as she did her best to stand her ground. "P-put her down!" When a hand touched her shoulder, she instinctively threw a punch, only for it to be stopped by soft sand. When she saw it though, she pulled her hand away as if she was touching a hot stove.

"Relax," Gaara told her gently. "These are my personal guards. You can trust them."

"B-but..." Shira looked warily at the ANBU guards. She shakily walked up to the one holding Tori and held out her arms. "_I'll_ carry her!" Despite her shaking, she gave the man quite the fierce glare.

The ANBU looked over her shoulder at Gaara.

He nodded.

The ANBU nodded back and laid Tori in Shira's arms. "Oof." She stumbled slightly for a second before standing back up straight.

"Take them to their room," Gaara commanded. The guards all nodded and began leading Shira out the room and down the hall.

Gaara just sighed to himself as he started to look around the room. He noticed, however, that Mamoru was still on the ground. When he kneeled down to check on him, he noticed that he was no longer in shock, instead staring at the doorway. "Tomi-san?"

"K-Kazekage-sama?" He glanced at the redhead, before standing on his own.

"Are you alright?" Gaara stood as well.

Mamoru nodded absently. "I don't get it." Gaara just looked at him, expecting him to continue. "I thought Shira hated Tori..."

Gaara rested a hand on his shoulder, much like he did with Shira earlier. "Women are hard to read." He said sagely.

Mamoru hummed and continued looking at the doorway. _'I wonder what Naruto-sensei would say about this...'_

* * *

"Okay!" Naruto yelled out as he landed from a massive leap. He looked at his map, then at the bowl-shaped hole in front of him. "This looks like the place, ya' know!"

He hopped down into the depression and began looking around.

The walls were sloped, only really getting steep at the top. There was the occasional climbable slope along the ridge, but those were few and far between. The majority of the walls were vertical, and some were even curving in on themselves.

At the bottom center of the crater, there was another, smaller crater that was almost perfectly spherical.

Unnaturally so.

Looking closer at each of the walls, Naruto found similarly unnatural looking craters all over the place.

'_What happened here...'_ Naruto wondered.

'_**This is strange...'**_ Kurama said.

Naruto entered his mindscape and looked at the giant fox. _"What is?"_

'_**If I remember correctly, this is where Shukaku lives.'**_ Kurama absently scratched his ear.

Naruto hummed in thought. "_Those holes looked like they were made with seals… No other method would make such a smooth surface."_

Kurama sat up, slightly disturbed. _**'There's also that Old Man Tsuchikage's Jutsu.'**_ He offered, slight urgency in his voice.

Naruto nodded. "_That is possible, but I don't remember him ever using a ball-shaped Jutsu."_

Kurama was now fully alert.

In the real world, Naruto sat down and meditated for a minute. When he opened his eyes again, they were golden with rectangular pupils.

Not even a second later, he flew out of the massive crater and began running. _'You feel that too, right Kurama?'_

While there was a ton of latent Chakra in the air, that isn't what caught Naruto's attention. What caught his attention was the group of people right on the edge of his senses.

They were decently strong. If he had to guess, he'd put them right up there with the stronger Jonin in Konoha.

They were also currently moving away from him. While they weren't moving super quick, they were still marching out of the desert.

Moving at his fastest, He could probably make it to them in a day or two, but he would likely end up leaving the Land of Wind in the process.

'_**Naruto, stop for a second.'**_ Kurama told him.

Naruto grumpily did so. _'What is it, Kurama? If those people have Shukaku, we have to stop them, ya' know!'_

'_**Calm down for a second.'**_ The Nine-Tailed fox sighed to himself. **_'Pay closer attention.'_**

'_What are you talking about!?'_ Naruto was about to start running again, but a shout stopped him.

Naruto stepped backward just in time for a kunai to sail past his face. A small breath of relief escaped him before he noticed the paper bomb trailing behind it.

He jumped away a second before it exploded, managing to get away with only slight burns that healed less than a second later.

'_Where did...'_ Naruto thought, but it was cut off by yet more kunai with paper bombs coming at him. With a grunt, Naruto jumped upwards and away, looking all around him to find the source. _'I can't sense them with Sage Mode!'_

Kurama humphed. _**'If you listened to me, I could've told you.'**_

Before Naruto got the chance to respond, multiple people all rose from beneath the sand. They were all bald, with one strapped gis. Most of them wore dark blue gis, but one of them was wearing a black one. They all also wore shin guards and gloves.

They reminded Naruto of monks.

"Is that really…?" One of the blue wearing ones asked.

His partner to his left sighed. "We knew what we were getting into."

"Enough chit-chat!" The black wearing one yelled out. "Formation Strike!" He commanded as he ran to block Naruto's path. All the other men nodded and got into a double-file line around him. The two in the front pulled out bo staffs and readied them.

'_Looks like we aren't getting through this without a fight.'_ Naruto readied himself, crouching slightly and bringing his arms up.

'_**Fifteen-on-one hardly seems like a fair fight.'**_ Kurama noted.

'_I'm used to it, ya' know.'_ Naruto thought back.

No one moved.

The monks were waiting to see what Naruto would do, and Naruto was waiting for them to strike.

"CHARGE!"

After a few seconds, the black wearing man yelled out, and all of the monks advanced at once.

When the two with the bo staffs arrived, Naruto immediately caught their first strike in each hand and proceeded to flip them over his shoulders. Before anyone else had a chance to react, he punched the next two in line in the gut.

'_Eleven left.'_ He thought before one of the next pair moved to sweep his legs out from under him. Naruto kicked him in the face before he got the chance. He was about to move onto the next pair when he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.

He turned and saw that the man's partner had snuck behind him and stabbed him with his kunai. A quick elbow to the face dealt with him though. _'Whatever they're doing to be invisible to Sage Mode is annoying.'_

Naruto looked back forward just in time to see the man wearing the black gi flying at him with an outstretched arm. Naruto bent backward just enough for the man's lariat to go sailing over his head before he was set upon by more of the blue gis.

One went to strike his legs, while the other went after his chest.

Naruto jumped away from them with a flip, only for two more to come at him right when he landed. It seems they had taken the bo staffs from their fallen comrades because they certainly weren't trained with one. Their strikes were sloppy at best.

He almost felt bad hurting them.

He still took them out though, taking their staffs and flinging them away so no one else could use them.

Immediately after he did that though, the two from earlier attacked again, this time going for aimed punches at different areas of his body, forcing him to duck and weave around their strikes.

Naruto noticed something odd during all of this. While these people were all blank spots on his Sage Mode radar, the Chakra in the air began shifting around in just such a way that he knew there was something coming.

Less than a second later, the final four monks all shouted out an attack.

Three shouted, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" While the final one shouted, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

The result was a raging inferno the size of a building, so hot that it began turning the sand touching it into glass.

Naruto prepared to jump out of the way, but at the last second, the back of his knees were kicked by the two monks he was just fighting causing them to buckle under him. He fell to the ground as they jumped away, leaving only him in the path of the blast.

'_Kurama!'_

'_**I know!'**_

The fireball exploded, burning a few of the nearby monks.

Bits of molten glass and sand rained down from the force of the explosion.

"I-I can't believe it..." One of the men finally said.

"We just… We beat _the_ Naruto Uzumaki!" Another cheered. This caused a chain reaction, making all the other conscious monks cheer.

"Alright men!" The one wearing black clapped. "Now we can report back to Hige-san, and-"

He was cut off all of a sudden by a black orb hitting him in the face, sending him flying and knocking him out cold.

All of the remaining monks looked at the inferno that was still blazing with wide eyes.

Walking out of the blaze, holding a pitch-black staff, with seven black orbs floating behind him. The one that hit the monk returned, making the number a full eight.

Without uttering a single word, six of the Truth-Seeking Orbs detached and struck at the remaining monks.

As soon as they all were defeated, Naruto released his breath and fell out of Six Paths Mode. He immediately fell backward and panted heavily.

"It's been too long since I've used that..." He eventually muttered out.

'_**You're out of practice.'**_ Kurama grumbled. **_'These guys shouldn't have been a problem.'_**

'_I know...'_ Naruto shook his head. He was still too wiped out to stand. Not only did he go into Six Paths Mode for the first time in years, but he also had to remake the Truth-Seeking Orbs. _'I underestimated them...'_

Kurama finally settled down, laying down for the first time since they reached Shukaku's home. _**'You know, I think it's time for a meeting.'**_

Naruto nodded and stood himself up. "Yeah… Let me just tie these guys up first."

* * *

**Reviews:**

**Hospitaller1080: Well, I do hope that this chapter answered your question. In case it didn't, I will say that it's hinted that Six Paths Mode requires Chakra from all of the Tailed Beasts.**

* * *

**Huge thanks to SofluwYerg for once again being a beta for this chapter.**

* * *

**We've reached double digits, and things are really heating up now.**

**Once again, I personally feel this chapter is lacking, but I'm assured that it's really good, so I guess it's up to y'all to decide.**

**Also, SHIRA! Wonderful little Shira is getting her chance in the spotlight and I couldn't be prouder.**

**Not much else to say, so I'll just head out for now.**

**See ya' next chapter!**


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